Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 106,680 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc increased its Accenture stake by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, buying 106,680 additional shares and bringing its holding to 5,058,617 shares, worth about $1.36 billion.
• Accenture reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $2.93 versus estimates of $2.84 and revenue of $18.04 billion, up 7.8% year over year.
• Analysts remain cautiously positive: the stock has a Moderate Buy consensus, though several firms recently lowered price targets; Accenture also paid a quarterly dividend of $1.63 per share, yielding 3.6% annually.

Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,058,617 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 106,680 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.82% of Accenture worth $1,357,227,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its position in Accenture by 96.4% during the fourth quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 108 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Steph & Co. raised its position in Accenture by 107.5% during the fourth quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 110 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on Accenture from $280.00 to $230.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 6th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Accenture from $282.00 to $275.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Accenture from $317.00 to $260.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Piper Sandler set a $282.00 price target on Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Accenture from $330.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 20th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $274.50.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $179.36 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. The business's 50 day moving average price is $187.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $228.65. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $155.82 and a fifty-two week high of $321.77. The company has a market cap of $119.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.69, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.33% and a net margin of 10.61%.The firm had revenue of $18.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.82 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 53.40%.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.

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