Guggenheim Capital LLC Boosts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Guggenheim Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,609 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,547 shares during the quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,768,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,351,683,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,746,455,000 after purchasing an additional 140,726 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $285.66 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.96, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $330.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $350.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current 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 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 27,921 shares of company stock worth $9,876,619. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered 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. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

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.