Bearing Point Capital LLC Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bearing Point Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 21,752 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $7,652,000. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.6% of Bearing Point Capital LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its stake in Accenture by 126.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $14,090,000 after purchasing an additional 22,391 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,088,000 after buying an additional 843 shares during the period. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 127.1% during the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $3.51 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $304.20. 2,717,473 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,982,922. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $306.68 and a 200 day moving average of $343.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.53 billion, a PE ratio of 25.52, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

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.