Unisphere Establishment Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Unisphere Establishment bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 18,700 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $6,578,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wick Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1,231.7% during the 4th quarter. Wick Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,150 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,867,000 after purchasing an additional 7,538 shares during the last quarter. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Soros Fund Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 143.6% in the fourth quarter. Soros Fund Management LLC now owns 184,795 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $65,009,000 after acquiring an additional 108,943 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 642.0% during the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 93,980 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $33,061,000 after purchasing an additional 81,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Owen LaRue LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Owen LaRue LLC now owns 2,328 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $819,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $4.96 on Friday, hitting $305.49. The stock had a trading volume of 1,810,006 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,978,367. The company's 50 day moving average price is $308.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $345.02. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. 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 capitalization of $191.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for 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 business's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price 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.