KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Takes $83.90 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 238,506 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $83,904,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. lifted its stake in Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $812,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 126.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $14,090,000 after acquiring an additional 22,391 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the period. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 127.1% during the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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Insider Activity

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $2.48 on Wednesday, hitting $311.38. The company had a trading volume of 3,669,622 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,767,183. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current 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 moving average of $356.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $356.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued 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. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company 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 1.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.