Axa S.A. Purchases 47,361 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

AXA S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 476,236 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 47,361 shares during the quarter. AXA S.A. owned 0.08% of Accenture worth $167,535,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,016 shares of company stock worth $1,694,866 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $2.27 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $306.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,647,667 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,981,587. The company has a market capitalization of $191.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $306.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $343.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target 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. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target 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.