Challenger Wealth Management Acquires Shares of 2,637 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Challenger Wealth Management acquired a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,637 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $928,000. Accenture makes up about 0.8% of Challenger Wealth Management's holdings, making the stock its 27th largest holding.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in 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 buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake 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 buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim reduced 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. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.14.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, 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. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $1.82 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $317.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,556,242 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,998,163. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $199.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.66, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The business's fifty day moving average is $302.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $339.31.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Accenture Company 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.