Ballentine Partners LLC Purchases 499 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,055 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 499 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,000,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2,666.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $251,607,000 after acquiring an additional 689,366 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 37,788.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,452 shares of company stock valued at $5,934,343 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

ACN opened at $352.33 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $357.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $345.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

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.