Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,478 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $872,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during 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 worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 51,837.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in Accenture by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,353,909,000 after purchasing an additional 826,038 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $308.51 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.06 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $355.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $356.23. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.