Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by CWA Asset Management Group LLC

CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 12.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,524 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,447 shares during the quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,716,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position 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 worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.2% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were 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 owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $312.03 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.43 billion, a PE ratio of 25.77, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $306.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $334.90.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays reduced their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.00.

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.