Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 170,258 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,937 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $45,680,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,070,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,726,831,000 after buying an additional 854,361 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,135,065 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,938,156,000 after buying an additional 118,460 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 41.1% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,128,134 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,223,839,000 after buying an additional 4,984,930 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,693,994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,869,199,000 after buying an additional 546,198 shares during the period. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 9.0% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 9,615,366 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,371,149,000 after buying an additional 790,580 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $176.47 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $188.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $230.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $155.82 and a 1 year high of $322.86. The company has a market cap of $117.43 billion, a PE ratio of 14.45, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. The company had revenue of $18.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.82 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.40%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $280.00 to $230.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 6th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $317.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on Accenture from $282.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $274.50.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.