Wellington Management Group LLP Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 0.8% of Wellington Management Group LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Wellington Management Group LLP owned approximately 1.95% of Accenture worth $4,283,225,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. 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 research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

Accenture stock opened at $304.32 on Monday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $354.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $356.07. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $190.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.