Fiera Capital Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 13.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 57,532 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 6,626 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $17,952,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. HSBC began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 target price on the stock. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $360.21.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on ACN
Accenture Trading Down 1.7%
Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $4.83 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $274.07. The stock had a trading volume of 4,270,498 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,295,311. The company has a market capitalization of $171.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.82, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $272.39 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $300.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $320.74.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.
Insider Activity
In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
About Accenture
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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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