Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 84.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 335,890 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 153,680 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned approximately 0.05% of Accenture worth $118,163,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in 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 during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC purchased 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 Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $308.74 on Friday. 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 company 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. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $305.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $343.13. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13 % 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 this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,016 shares of company stock worth $1,694,866 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

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.