GAMMA Investing LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 30,256.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC owned 0.55% of Accenture worth $1,067,651,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE ACN traded down $0.80 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $313.67. The company had a trading volume of 1,291,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,963,614. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $196.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company's fifty day moving average is $302.69 and its 200-day moving average is $338.08.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.14.

About Accenture

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.