Rathbones Group PLC Has $379.35 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Rathbones Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,078,328 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,098 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 1.8% of Rathbones Group PLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Rathbones Group PLC owned 0.17% of Accenture worth $379,345,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research 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 note on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $285.04 on Monday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.00 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $349.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $354.67.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last ninety days. 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.