Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 269,782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 7,506 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 1.8% of Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $94,907,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,871,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,065,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $1.79 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $308.97. The stock had a trading volume of 3,889,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,771,908. The company has a market cap of $193.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $358.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $357.10.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Eight 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 MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the 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 of the company's stock, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.