Investment Management Corp of Ontario Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 64.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 34,346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 13,523 shares during the period. Investment Management Corp of Ontario’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,083,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 6,016 shares of company stock worth $1,694,866. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $307.85 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $192.82 billion, a PE ratio of 25.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $304.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.50. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal 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 of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.