AKO Capital LLP Has $461.36 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

AKO Capital LLP raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,311,465 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 136,236 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 6.4% of AKO Capital LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. AKO Capital LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $461,360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 17.6% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $394,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Avestar Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 30.7% in the third quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,178,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. Baldwin Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 12,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,578,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Cynosure Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 18.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 1,504 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 209.4% in the third quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 5,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,042,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $311.38 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $356.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $356.56. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.86 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% 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.