Ostrum Asset Management Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ostrum Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 34.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,199 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 2,081 shares during the quarter. Ostrum Asset Management's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,884,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $2.22 on Friday, hitting $293.63. The stock had a trading volume of 2,914,316 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,004,927. The company's 50 day moving average price is $318.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $347.71. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Company Profile

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.