Guardian Partners Inc. Makes New $594,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Guardian Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,660 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $594,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $302,751,000 after buying an additional 858,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its position in shares of Accenture by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,353,909,000 after buying an additional 826,038 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $2.65 on Thursday, hitting $308.51. The company had a trading volume of 2,870,173 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,766,679. 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 company has a market capitalization of $193.06 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company's fifty day moving average price is $356.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $356.56.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $378.23.

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.