Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Crew Capital Management Ltd.

Crew Capital Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 837 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 115 shares during the period. Crew Capital Management Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew 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 buying an additional 96,414 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,542 shares during the period. Chicago Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 284.7% during the 4th quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 12,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,449,000 after purchasing an additional 9,382 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $199,167,000 after purchasing an additional 565,882 shares during the period. Finally, VELA Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,130,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $4.85 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $303.16. 4,719,034 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,463,137. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $342.35. The company has a market cap of $203.34 billion, a PE ratio of 27.65, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.