Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. Boosts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 202.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 81,119 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 54,300 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.1% of Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,537,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 24.8% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 378 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.0% during the third quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,673 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $591,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the third quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,552 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,609,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 43,265 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,294,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $384.45.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $300.86 on Friday. 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 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $188.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $360.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $357.39.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 1.97%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.