Woodline Partners LP Acquires Shares of 29,642 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Woodline Partners LP bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 29,642 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $10,428,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $21,246,236,000 after acquiring an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,994,922,000 after acquiring an additional 181,449 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $0.62 on Wednesday, reaching $314.81. 996,707 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,992,725. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company's 50 day moving average is $302.05 and its 200-day moving average is $339.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.17 billion, a PE ratio of 26.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.14.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 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.