Burney Co. Has $7.37 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Burney Co. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,953 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,414 shares during the period. Burney Co.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,371,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2,666.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $204,895,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Mizuho lifted their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $385.04.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $349.45. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,615,790 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,609,365. The company has a market cap of $218.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $357.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $344.94. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

About Accenture

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.