Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Gateway Investment Advisers LLC

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 119,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,207 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $41,948,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. West Coast Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. West Coast Financial LLC now owns 35,029 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,323,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares in the last quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP grew its position in Accenture by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP now owns 5,990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,107,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. RMR Wealth Builders increased its stake in Accenture by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 5,437 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,913,000 after purchasing an additional 203 shares in the last quarter. Essex Savings Bank lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Essex Savings Bank now owns 4,807 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,691,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the period. Finally, Sawyer & Company Inc grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Sawyer & Company Inc now owns 15,043 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,292,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $0.77 on Thursday, hitting $347.48. The stock had a trading volume of 115,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,360,517. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $357.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $344.94. The stock has a market cap of $217.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.15, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America lifted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.