Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Naples Global Advisors LLC

Naples Global Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,727 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 0.8% of Naples Global Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Naples Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,652,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Davidson Trust Co. grew its position in Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew 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 worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Accenture by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $90,425,000 after acquiring an additional 56,829 shares in the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $321,000. Finally, Sycomore Asset Management grew its position in shares of Accenture by 93.1% during the 4th quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 57,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,367,000 after acquiring an additional 27,596 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $382.14.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $316.41 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $198.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.54, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $303.02 and a 200 day moving average of $337.76.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the 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 owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.