Aquatic Capital Management LLC Raises Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Aquatic Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 71.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 74,231 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 30,911 shares during the period. Accenture comprises about 0.7% of Aquatic Capital Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Aquatic Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $26,114,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Accenture by 1.9% during the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.4% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,169,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares during the period. Arvest Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $5.30 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $298.55. The stock had a trading volume of 3,251,870 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,990,496. The stock has a market cap of $186.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company's 50 day moving average price is $314.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $346.55. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.