Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Apeiron RIA LLC

Apeiron RIA LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,109 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $390,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $362.76 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $346.75. The company has a market capitalization of $227.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

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.