Coleford Investment Management Ltd. Takes $15.43 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Coleford Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 43,855 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $15,428,000. Accenture comprises approximately 4.1% of Coleford Investment Management Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $255,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,291 shares of company stock valued at $7,880,886. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded up $4.39 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $283.62. 698,196 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,996,490. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $324.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $349.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $177.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.80, 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.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. Accenture's dividend 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.