Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 472.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,258 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $854,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Davidson Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 47.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after buying an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $317,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of ACN stock opened at $312.03 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $306.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $334.90. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $195.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.33.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price 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. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.00.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on Accenture
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Accenture Company Profile
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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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