AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 25.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 191,822 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 39,001 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $67,481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.4% during the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,169,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the period. Arvest Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.5% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $14,555,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight equities 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on ACN
Accenture Stock Down 1.1 %
Shares of ACN traded down $3.37 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $304.34. The company's stock had a trading volume of 957,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,973,594. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $307.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $344.13. The company has a market cap of $190.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given 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 1.95%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Accenture news, 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 sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Accenture Company Profile
(
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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