Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Cumberland Partners Ltd

Cumberland Partners Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,012 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,652 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.8% of Cumberland Partners Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $20,791,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock worth $13,645,871. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.62 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $316.80. The company had a trading volume of 2,000,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,386,068. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $353.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $342.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its 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. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.