Segment Wealth Management LLC Grows Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Segment Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 44,315 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,331 shares during the period. Segment Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $13,828,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during 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 buying an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth 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 during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of 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 position in 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 valued at $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $306.11 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $306.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $334.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $191.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. The firm's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.00.

About Accenture

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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