Sapient Capital LLC Invests $30.42 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 86,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $30,418,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $3.37 on Friday, hitting $303.71. 2,767,141 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $342.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $341.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.