United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund Buys New Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,900 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,372,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 17.6% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $394,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its holdings in Accenture by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 11,538 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,078,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267 shares in the last quarter. Associated Banc Corp raised its position in Accenture by 6.7% in the third quarter. Associated Banc Corp now owns 1,180 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Qsemble Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $1,597,000. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 108,018 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,182,000 after buying an additional 2,742 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $308.97 on Wednesday. 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 plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $357.53 and a 200-day moving average of $356.88. The company has a market cap of $193.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, 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. Eight 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.91.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.