Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Raised by Catalina Capital Group LLC

Catalina Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,618 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Catalina Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $921,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Czech National Bank increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 127,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $45,104,000 after acquiring an additional 7,791 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Accenture by 45.4% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 10,096 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,569,000 after purchasing an additional 3,151 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 45.2% during the 3rd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 10,607 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,750,000 after purchasing an additional 3,302 shares in the last quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 26.8% during the 3rd quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,122 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $397,000 after buying an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Miracle Mile Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.8% in the third quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 34,605 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,232,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $384.88 on Monday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $359.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $350.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $240.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

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.