Aristides Capital LLC Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Aristides Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 100.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,410 shares during the quarter. Aristides Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,396,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $2,351,683,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,746,455,000 after purchasing an additional 140,726 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on ACN shares. UBS Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $285.04 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $349.68 and its 200 day moving average is $354.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Accenture Company 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.