Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. Acquires New Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 943,420 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $253,120,000. Accenture makes up 4.0% of Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC now owns 878 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $236,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 329 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. grew its stake in Accenture by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. now owns 4,416 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,751 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,108,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peak Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Peak Asset Management LLC now owns 5,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,461,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $169.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.08. The company’s 50-day moving average is $181.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $221.83. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $155.82 and a 1-year high of $317.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $18.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.80 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. Accenture’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.82 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.40%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $315.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $260.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $282.00 to $258.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 8th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.89.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.