Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.

Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 202.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 81,119 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,300 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.1% of Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,537,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,751,000 after purchasing an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,353,909,000 after purchasing an additional 826,038 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $384.45.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $300.86 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $188.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.24, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $360.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $357.39. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture 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.