Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Twin Capital Management Inc.

Twin Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 12,602 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,433,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $1,866,000. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $11,300,000 after buying an additional 7,151 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $550,000. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 37.5% in the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 253 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $89,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on ACN. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $285.04 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.00 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $349.68 and its 200 day moving average is $354.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given 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 2.08%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.