Fidelis Capital Partners LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 33.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,001 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,243 shares during the quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,755,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,560,765,000 after purchasing an additional 704,657 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. 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 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $1.46 during trading on Thursday, hitting $316.00. 2,995,221 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,377,311. The firm has a market cap of $211.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.53, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $357.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.95. 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current 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 paid 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 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.