180 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Acquired by Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd.

Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 180 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $63,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.62 on Tuesday, hitting $316.80. The stock had a trading volume of 2,000,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,386,068. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $212.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $353.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $342.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

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.