CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Purchases 36,325 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 760,483 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 36,325 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned about 0.12% of Accenture worth $267,605,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total value of $902,725.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,737 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,126,833.33. The trade was a 11.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,291 shares of company stock valued at $7,880,886 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $5.50 on Tuesday, hitting $284.73. 863,790 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,997,135. The stock has a market cap of $178.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $324.03 and a 200-day moving average of $349.02.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.