Aquatic Capital Management LLC Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Aquatic Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 71.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 74,231 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 30,911 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 0.7% of Aquatic Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Aquatic Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $26,114,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $293.63 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The business’s 50 day moving average is $316.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $347.25. The firm has a market cap of $183.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.63, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Barclays decreased their price target 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. Mizuho reduced their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

Accenture Company 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.