Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 18.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 850 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the quarter. Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $299,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,036,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. MBB Public Markets I LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 1,431.7% in the 2nd quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 44,818 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,598,000 after purchasing an additional 41,892 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 71.2% during the second quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $632,000 after buying an additional 866 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 40.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 952,713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $289,063,000 after purchasing an additional 275,145 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,205,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $669,313,000 after acquiring an additional 51,387 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $362.65 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $357.19 and its 200 day moving average is $346.86. 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 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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.