Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Westpac Banking Corp

Westpac Banking Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,827 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $643,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 20.3% in the 4th quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,481 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $868,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares during the period. Biltmore Family Office LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Biltmore Family Office LLC now owns 695 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $244,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Investors L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $263,000. Huntington National Bank boosted its position in Accenture by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 343,463 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $120,827,000 after buying an additional 10,242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kesler Norman & Wride LLC raised its position in Accenture by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 21,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,406,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of 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 note on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $285.04 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $354.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during 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%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last three months. 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.