Rathbones Group PLC Purchases 53,098 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Rathbones Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,078,328 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,098 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 1.8% of Rathbones Group PLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $379,345,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim dropped 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. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $285.04 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $349.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $354.67. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.00 and a 1-year 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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, 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 represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.