Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,744 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,832,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, RVW Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,750 shares of company stock valued at $14,543,436 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $313.19 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $357.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $341.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.