Norinchukin Bank The Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Norinchukin Bank The boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,045 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,776 shares during the period. Norinchukin Bank The’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,273,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA lifted its position in Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. grew its position in Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $812,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC raised its position in Accenture by 126.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,090,000 after purchasing an additional 22,391 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 37.5% during the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 127.1% in the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $817,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company 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 on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Accenture stock opened at $282.28 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $326.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $349.73. The company has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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, topping 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 business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.