Brentview Investment Management LLC Acquires New Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brentview Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 11,623 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,089,000. Accenture accounts for about 2.3% of Brentview Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2,666.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $251,607,000 after acquiring an additional 689,366 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $180,401,000 after acquiring an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of ACN opened at $384.88 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $240.86 billion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average is $359.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $350.06. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

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.