Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Increased by Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 18,371 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 228 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,447,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,560,765,000 after purchasing an additional 704,657 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America lifted their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Redburn Atlantic lifted their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.09 during trading on Friday, reaching $316.09. The stock had a trading volume of 1,447,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,364,353. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $356.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $341.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.01 billion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results 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 net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.