Quantessence Capital LLC Invests $2.49 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Quantessence Capital LLC purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 7,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,487,000. Accenture makes up approximately 1.0% of Quantessence Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,126,833.33. This trade represents a 11.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,291 shares of company stock worth $7,880,886 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment 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.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

ACN stock opened at $279.48 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $175.05 billion, a PE ratio of 23.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a 50 day moving average of $324.03 and a 200 day moving average of $349.02. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Accenture 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.