Sapient Capital LLC Takes $24.19 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sapient Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 68,947 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $24,194,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, RVW Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 167,831 shares of the company's stock, valued at $60,884,051.87. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 167,831 shares in the company, valued at $60,884,051.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $0.94 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $325.34. The stock had a trading volume of 2,204,227 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,320,105. The stock has a market cap of $218.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.50, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.19. The business's 50 day moving average is $362.61 and its 200 day moving average is $341.72. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

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.