Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,286,005 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 43,217 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned approximately 0.37% of Accenture worth $804,194,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $666,495,000. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 51,837.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $302,751,000 after buying an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays cut their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $378.23.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on ACN
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture 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. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 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. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Accenture Stock Performance
Shares of ACN stock traded down $1.68 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $283.54. 5,017,701 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,006,013. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $177.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company's 50 day moving average is $336.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $352.00.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.
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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