Tower Research Capital LLC TRC Increases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 50.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,746 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,342 shares during the quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $255,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,778 shares of company stock worth $8,408,087 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $282.28 on Friday. 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 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a PE ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $326.22 and its 200-day moving average is $349.68.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.