Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 103,732 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 0.8% of Ancora Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 27th largest position. Ancora Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $36,492,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.1% in the 4th 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 during the period. AXA S.A. raised its position in Accenture by 11.0% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $818,000. Pennington Partners & CO. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $252,000. Finally, South Plains Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $905,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight research 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.
Get Our Latest Research Report on Accenture
Accenture Trading Up 0.7 %
ACN stock traded up $2.27 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $306.07. 2,647,748 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,981,587. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $306.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $343.86. The company has a market capitalization of $191.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 last year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.
Accenture Company Profile
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Free Report)
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.
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