Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Sciencast Management LP

Sciencast Management LP grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 106.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,396 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,810 shares during the quarter. Sciencast Management LP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,602,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $305.17 on Friday. 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 capitalization of $190.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $359.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $357.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders 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 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group cut 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. Eight 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.05.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.