Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 84.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 335,890 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 153,680 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $118,163,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in 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 position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $308.74 on Friday. 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 plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $193.37 billion, a PE ratio of 25.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $305.12 and its 200-day moving average is $343.13.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.