Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 1,018 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,018 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $358,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,751,000 after buying an additional 858,944 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % 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 three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Down 5.4 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $285.04 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a PE ratio of 23.91, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $349.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $354.55.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s 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.