Resonant Capital Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Resonant Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,460,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $251,607,000 after purchasing an additional 689,366 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 37,788.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after buying an additional 509,011 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,126,833.33. This trade represents a 11.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $384.88 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $359.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $350.06. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $240.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. 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, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture Company 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.