Slow Capital Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Slow Capital Inc. boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,566 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,006,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sfmg LLC raised its position in Accenture by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. Sfmg LLC now owns 2,775 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $974,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors now owns 1,544 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $1,374,000. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,820 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,148,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 525,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $184,429,000 after purchasing an additional 22,066 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:ACN traded up $0.67 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $313.94. The company had a trading volume of 2,900,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,239,222. The firm has a market cap of $210.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $358.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.14. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture 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.