Aurora Private Wealth Inc. Invests $5.18 Million in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Aurora Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 16,603 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,181,000. Accenture comprises about 1.3% of Aurora Private Wealth Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Down 1.4%

ACN traded down $4.30 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $300.48. 2,752,818 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,900,565. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a market cap of $188.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.92, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $309.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $329.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related 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 value of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.