Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Mizuho Securities USA LLC

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 45.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 59,222 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 18,604 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $20,834,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 378.9% in the third 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 during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings 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 valued at $1,353,909,000 after acquiring an additional 826,038 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the business's 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays cut their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. 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 report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

Accenture stock traded up $2.48 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $311.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,669,622 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,767,183. The stock's fifty day moving average is $357.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $356.88. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.86 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.