Accenture PLC $ACN Holdings Increased by Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 328.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 533,515 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 408,859 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Accenture were worth $143,142,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 96.2% during the 4th quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 692,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $185,722,000 after buying an additional 339,389 shares in the last quarter. Evelyn Partners Asset Management Ltd raised its position in shares of Accenture by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Evelyn Partners Asset Management Ltd now owns 24,428 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,554,000 after buying an additional 1,825 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $622,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 17,778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,770,000 after buying an additional 1,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,997 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,072,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. This trade represents a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $247.00 to $201.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 8th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $215.00 to $195.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 1st. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $259.89.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $169.95 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $181.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $221.83. The company has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $155.82 and a fifty-two week high of $317.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $18.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.80 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.82 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 13.84 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

About Accenture

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.