Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 15.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 46,042 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 5,991 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC's holdings in Accenture were worth $14,367,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 0.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew 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 during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position 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 worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in 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 buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in 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 buying an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $382.15.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on ACN
Accenture Stock Performance
Shares of ACN traded down $6.76 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $311.37. The stock had a trading volume of 3,102,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,958,031. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $305.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $335.77. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 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 (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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The business's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 48.89%.
Accenture 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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