Miracle Mile Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 38,854 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,758 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during 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 buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $382.14.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $317.49 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $303.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $337.11. 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 stock has a market cap of $198.85 billion, a PE ratio of 26.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.