Schroder Investment Management Group Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 19.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 391,615 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 64,282 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group owned approximately 0.06% of Accenture worth $137,766,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,065,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group cut their price target on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $304.32 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $354.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $356.07. The firm has a market cap of $190.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.