Biltmore Family Office LLC Acquires 87 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Biltmore Family Office LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 695 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Biltmore Family Office LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $244,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $316.36 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $198.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.54, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. 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 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $352.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $355.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Eight investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This trade represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by 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.