180 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Acquired by Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd.

Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 180 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $63,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 34.7% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $729,230,000 after acquiring an additional 611,376 shares in the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 71.4% during the 4th quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $487,309,000 after acquiring an additional 578,610 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 33,484.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $199,167,000 after acquiring an additional 565,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of ACN traded down $0.62 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $316.80. 2,000,140 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,386,068. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $353.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $342.40. The company has a market capitalization of $212.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.72, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock worth $13,645,871 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.