Avanza Fonder AB Invests $13.22 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Avanza Fonder AB bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 41,798 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $13,222,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho dropped their target price 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. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.15.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $1.07 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $317.06. 917,860 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,951,386. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $198.58 billion, a PE ratio of 26.59, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company's fifty day moving average is $304.89 and its 200-day moving average is $336.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for 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%. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value 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. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture 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.