Mizuho Securities USA LLC Buys 18,604 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 45.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 59,222 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,604 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $20,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fi3 FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Fi3 FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC now owns 1,130 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Sciencast Management LP increased its position in shares of Accenture by 106.2% during the fourth quarter. Sciencast Management LP now owns 7,396 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,602,000 after acquiring an additional 3,810 shares in the last quarter. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 202.5% during the fourth quarter. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. now owns 81,119 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,537,000 after acquiring an additional 54,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 15,903 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,595,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.05.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $305.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $359.16 and its 200 day moving average is $357.13. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

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.