Empirical Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 234.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 44,524 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 31,195 shares during the quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $15,663,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Activity
In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of research firms have commented on ACN. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.04.
Read Our Latest Research Report on ACN
Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %
Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $1.77 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $352.33. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,061,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,629,327. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $345.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $220.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 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 (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.
Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase 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 shares are undervalued.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.
About Accenture
(
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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