Tidal Investments LLC Grows Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 56.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 70,795 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 25,471 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $24,905,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA increased its position in Accenture by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 127.1% in the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of 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 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. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $5.61 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $310.85. 1,384,038 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,987,705. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $302.36 and a 200-day moving average of $340.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.