Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Miracle Mile Advisors LLC

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,854 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,758 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $12,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in 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. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 28.1% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $90,425,000 after buying an additional 56,829 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $321,000. Finally, Sycomore Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 93.1% in the 4th quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 57,242 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $20,367,000 after purchasing an additional 27,596 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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. 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, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.14.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7%

ACN stock traded up $2.11 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $317.49. 2,308,334 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,970,076. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $303.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $337.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Accenture 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.