Accelerate Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Accelerate Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 14.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 727 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 93 shares during the quarter. Accelerate Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $227,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7%

ACN stock opened at $312.03 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $306.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $334.90.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.