Cannell & Spears LLC increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 44.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,346 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,025 shares during the period. Cannell & Spears LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,177,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during 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 during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $378.23.
View Our Latest Research Report on ACN
Accenture Stock Performance
Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $14.99 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $301.34. 3,612,840 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,939,831. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $188.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.28, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $352.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $355.28. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.
Insider Activity
In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
About Accenture
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Free Report)
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.
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