The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Buys 24,386 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 801,295 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 24,386 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned approximately 0.13% of Accenture worth $281,888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $666,495,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its position in Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective 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. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $4.96 during trading on Friday, hitting $305.49. The company had a trading volume of 1,809,987 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,977,193. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $309.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $345.45. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $191.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 (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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business 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 firm earned $2.77 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's 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.