TCW Group Inc. Invests $4.39 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

TCW Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 12,490 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,390,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. now owns 102 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded down $4.94 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $300.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,048,661 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,867,473. The company has a 50 day moving average of $321.32 and a 200-day moving average of $342.40. Accenture plc has a one year low of $285.18 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $201.89 billion, a PE ratio of 27.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.24.

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.