Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,126,846 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 254,869 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 0.82% of Accenture worth $1,803,572,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Accurate Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,833 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $643,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 54.4% in the 4th quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,499 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $879,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the last quarter. Pines Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $377,000. Websterrogers Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $240,000. Finally, Sawyer & Company Inc lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Sawyer & Company Inc now owns 15,043 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $5,292,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim reduced 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. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $381.76.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5%

ACN stock traded up $1.47 on Monday, hitting $319.16. 2,247,283 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,985,820. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $302.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $199.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

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

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.