Coleford Investment Management Ltd. Makes New $15.43 Million Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Coleford Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 43,855 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $15,428,000. Accenture accounts for approximately 4.1% of Coleford Investment Management Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 37,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,170,000 after buying an additional 3,071 shares in the last quarter. MSH Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $304,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 75,555 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $26,579,000 after acquiring an additional 3,802 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,439,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, Regal Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 419.1% during the 4th quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,925,000 after buying an additional 4,417 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $285.66 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $330.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $350.70. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year 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 $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.96, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % 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, 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 transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 27,921 shares of company stock worth $9,876,619. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.