Uniting Wealth Partners LLC Purchases New Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Uniting Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 11,649 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,098,000. Accenture accounts for about 2.0% of Uniting Wealth Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 51,837.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,751,000 after purchasing an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. This trade represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim lowered their target price 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

ACN opened at $316.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $352.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $355.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $198.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.54, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’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 posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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