Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Position Increased by TIAA Trust National Association

TIAA Trust National Association increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 58.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 94,976 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,938 shares during the period. TIAA Trust National Association’s holdings in Accenture were worth $33,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 1,394 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $492,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 8,895 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,132,000 after acquiring an additional 725 shares during the last quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 137.5% in the 4th quarter. Modern Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,415 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,321,000 after acquiring an additional 1,977 shares during the last quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $986,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 117,072 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,185,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on ACN shares. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.91.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $307.24 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $192.27 billion, a PE ratio of 25.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $358.32 and a 200-day moving average of $357.10. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.