Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by Ieq Capital LLC

Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 36.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 205,820 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 55,269 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $55,222,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. McMillan Office Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 96.4% during the fourth quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 108 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $282.00 to $258.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $210.00 to $199.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. HSBC lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $259.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $2,267,746.28. This trade represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $169.95 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $181.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $221.83. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $155.82 and a 1-year high of $317.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by $0.09. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. The firm had revenue of $18.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.80 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.82 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.40%.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.