Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Stonebrook Private Inc.

Stonebrook Private Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the quarter. Stonebrook Private Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $388,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of 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. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Seven investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $381.76.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $317.45 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 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 firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $302.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $341.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $198.83 billion, a PE ratio of 26.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.