Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Position Increased by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 731,875 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 87,785 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 0.7% of Blair William & Co. IL’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Blair William & Co. IL owned 0.12% of Accenture worth $257,466,000 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. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $366,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.1% in the fourth quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 36,707 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,913,000 after buying an additional 8,708 shares in the last quarter. Moment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $525,000. Sava Infond d.o.o. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $4,703,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,919,848 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,033,188,000 after purchasing an additional 113,949 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $311.38 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $356.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $356.56. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $194.86 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business 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 business earned $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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.