Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 24.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,124 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,017 shares during the quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,599,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in 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 valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on ACN
Accenture Trading Down 0.3%
Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $0.82 during trading on Friday, reaching $295.26. 4,158,937 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,943,749. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $307.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $332.11. The firm has a market cap of $184.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $273.19 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.46.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.
Insider Activity at Accenture
In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 now owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
About Accenture
(
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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