World Equity Group Inc. Makes New Investment in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

World Equity Group Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,187 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $682,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 38,049 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $13,385,000 after purchasing an additional 4,739 shares in the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 6,720 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,364,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 28,673 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $10,087,000 after acquiring an additional 637 shares during the period. Finally, Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 77.0% in the 4th quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 4,231 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,488,000 after purchasing an additional 1,840 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company'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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $20.72 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $285.66. The stock had a trading volume of 11,638,670 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,930,074. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The business's fifty day moving average is $306.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $333.68. The company has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.74, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. 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. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.00.

Accenture Company 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.