Vanguard Group Inc. Buys 392,183 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 9.65% of Accenture worth $21,246,236,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Accenture by 16.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $377,000. Navellier & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $216,000. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 13.9% during the third quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,060 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Biltmore Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $215,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $2.65 during trading on Thursday, hitting $308.51. The company had a trading volume of 2,870,173 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,764,568. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $355.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $356.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The company's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio 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.