Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Canopy Partners LLC

Canopy Partners LLC grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 72.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,095 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,143 shares during the quarter. Canopy Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,866,000. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 28.8% in the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $11,300,000 after purchasing an additional 7,151 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $550,000. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 37.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 253 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Down 5.4 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $285.04 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.91, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $349.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $354.67. 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 $275.00 and a fifty-two week 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current 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 $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio 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.