Schroder Investment Management Group Acquires 64,282 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 19.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 391,615 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 64,282 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group owned 0.06% of Accenture worth $137,766,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were 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 directly owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Down 3.9 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $12.49 on Thursday, hitting $303.84. 2,200,385 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,934,501. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. 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 $190.30 billion, a PE ratio of 25.52, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $352.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $355.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

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.