Beck Bode LLC Acquires New Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Beck Bode LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,258,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. CWA Asset Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 19,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,711,000 after purchasing an additional 1,798 shares during the period. Boltwood Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $272,000. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Insight Wealth Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 10,598 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,728,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $3.51 on Tuesday, hitting $304.20. 2,717,473 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,982,925. The firm has a market cap of $190.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $306.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $343.86. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.