Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 348.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,894 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,688 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,481,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Accenture Trading Down 0.3%
Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $1.02 during trading on Friday, hitting $316.71. 4,012,185 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,972,621. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $302.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $338.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $198.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company 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 company earned $2.77 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.14.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on ACN
Insider Activity at Accenture
In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
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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