FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,079,213 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 24,587 shares during the quarter. FMR LLC owned about 0.65% of Accenture worth $1,435,027,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $358,000. Aristides Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Aristides Capital LLC now owns 6,810 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,396,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410 shares in the last quarter. Ashburton Jersey Ltd acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,189,000. Sepio Capital LP raised its position in shares of Accenture by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Sepio Capital LP now owns 1,495 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $526,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Finally, Darden Wealth Group Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Darden Wealth Group Inc now owns 2,228 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $784,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.
View Our Latest Stock Report on Accenture
Accenture Stock Performance
NYSE ACN traded down $1.68 during trading on Friday, hitting $283.54. 5,017,701 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,010,801. The business has a 50 day moving average of $336.60 and a 200-day moving average of $352.03. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $177.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.79, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.
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 business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
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 paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Accenture Profile
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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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