Alteri Wealth LLC Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 913 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $321,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 103,732 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $36,492,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 71,785 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $25,253,000 after acquiring an additional 11,026 shares in the last quarter. AXA S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 476,236 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $167,535,000 after acquiring an additional 47,361 shares during the last quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $818,000. Finally, Pennington Partners & CO. LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $252,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays reduced their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $2.27 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $306.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,647,748 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,983,579. The firm has a market capitalization of $191.70 billion, a PE ratio of 25.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $306.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $343.86.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.