Disciplined Investors L.L.C. Makes New $263,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Disciplined Investors L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $263,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA increased its position in Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. lifted its position in Accenture by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC boosted its stake in Accenture by 126.8% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,090,000 after purchasing an additional 22,391 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Accenture by 37.5% in the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 127.1% during the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $817,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at $10,232,419.68. This trade represents 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 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $316.36 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $352.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $355.28. 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 company has a market cap of $198.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 1.87%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.