Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 35,990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,629,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,315,832,000 after acquiring an additional 96,414 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,098,000 after acquiring an additional 1,542 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 284.7% during the 4th quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 12,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,449,000 after acquiring an additional 9,382 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 valued at $199,167,000 after acquiring an additional 565,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VELA Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 3,681 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,130,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $308.01 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $349.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $342.14.

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 analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture 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 owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 32,490 shares of company stock valued at $10,592,664. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.