Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 219,886 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 741 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $77,354,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th 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 stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9 %

ACN stock opened at $308.51 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $193.06 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $355.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $356.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 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.