Petros Family Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,403 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,197,000. Accenture comprises 1.3% of Petros Family Wealth LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position.
A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in 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 buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $666,495,000. Swedbank AB increased its stake 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 worth $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 51,837.3% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $302,751,000 after purchasing an additional 858,944 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Barclays dropped 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 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. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $378.23.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Accenture
Insider Activity
In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,921 shares of company stock valued at $9,876,619 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Accenture Trading Down 0.4 %
ACN stock traded down $1.21 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $288.58. The stock had a trading volume of 3,273,144 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,008,262. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $180.75 billion, a PE ratio of 24.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company's 50-day moving average price is $334.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $351.59. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 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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