Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Raises Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 269,782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,506 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.8% of Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $94,907,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 24.8% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 378 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Prospera Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,673 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $591,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,552 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,609,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 43,265 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,294,000 after buying an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 7.3 %

NYSE ACN opened at $300.86 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $188.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.24, a PEG ratio of 3.23 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. The company has a fifty day moving average of $360.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $357.39.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $384.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.