Phoenix Financial Ltd. increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 19.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 13,361 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,198 shares during the quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,701,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $279,000. TCW Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,065,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 8.4% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,169,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price 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. 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 report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $377.82.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on ACN
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,921 shares of company stock worth $9,876,619 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of ACN traded up $1.28 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $289.94. 1,114,737 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,001,054. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $181.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.32, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $332.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $351.15.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS 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. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 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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