Darwin Wealth Management LLC Has $304,000 Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Darwin Wealth Management LLC lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 865 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 86 shares during the quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 34.7% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $729,230,000 after acquiring an additional 611,376 shares during the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd lifted its stake in Accenture by 71.4% in the fourth quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $487,309,000 after buying an additional 578,610 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 565,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 4.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after buying an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded down $5.43 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $306.56. 3,238,071 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,507,225. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $338.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $342.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a one year low of $264.42 and a one year high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price objective (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Company 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.