Ethic Inc. Acquires 6,358 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ethic Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 70,064 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,358 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 0.5% of Ethic Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,648,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $308.74 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $193.37 billion, a PE ratio of 25.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $305.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $343.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. UBS Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.