Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Purchases 306 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,844 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,167,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in Accenture by 12.8% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 27,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,649,000 after acquiring an additional 3,100 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its holdings in Accenture by 18.0% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 489,830 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $173,145,000 after acquiring an additional 74,825 shares during the period. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.2% during the third quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,756 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $974,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. Encompass More Asset Management raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.6% in the third quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $304.32 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.61 billion, a PE ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $354.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $356.03.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. 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 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Eight equities research 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. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.