Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA Purchases 35 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.6% of Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,675,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 29,326.4% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 233,940 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 233,145 shares during the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 5,758 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,026,000 after purchasing an additional 737 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 4,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,556,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,128,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $319.20 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.92 billion, a PE ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $304.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $336.42.

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. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

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.