Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC Has $33.06 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 642.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 93,980 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 81,314 shares during the period. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $33,061,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 1.9% in the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 8.4% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,169,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.5% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,555,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $293.51 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $314.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $346.55. 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 stock has a market cap of $183.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.62, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

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.