Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc. Purchases New Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 600 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 34.7% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $729,230,000 after buying an additional 611,376 shares in the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd raised its stake in Accenture by 71.4% during the 4th quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $487,309,000 after buying an additional 578,610 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 33,484.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $199,167,000 after acquiring an additional 565,882 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price objective (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price target on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $3.37 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $303.71. The stock had a trading volume of 2,767,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $203.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.21. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $342.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $341.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

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.