Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Purchases Shares of 23,964 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 23,964 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $8,430,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Prana Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,116,000. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 145,395 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $51,149,000 after buying an additional 8,703 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Accenture by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 133,264 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $46,881,000 after buying an additional 29,563 shares during the last quarter. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $3,245,000. Finally, NorthRock Partners LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 116.1% in the fourth quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 5,143 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,809,000 after acquiring an additional 2,763 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $381.76.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $5.76 during trading on Friday, hitting $317.45. 3,967,388 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,988,787. The company has a market cap of $198.83 billion, a PE ratio of 26.63, a P/E/G 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. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $302.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.18. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.