Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by GeoWealth Management LLC

GeoWealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,373 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,594,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after acquiring an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $282.28 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $176.80 billion, a PE ratio of 23.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $326.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $349.73. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following 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. Insiders have sold a total of 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of 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 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. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Accenture 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.