Ninety One North America Inc. Acquires 38,743 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ninety One North America Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 94.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 79,980 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 38,743 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.7% of Ninety One North America Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Ninety One North America Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,136,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA raised its position in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC raised its position in Accenture by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after buying an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $388.82 on Tuesday. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $359.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $350.23. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $243.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.59, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

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.