Mariner LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Mariner LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 264,481 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Mariner LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $93,043,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $666,495,000. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in Accenture by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $289.93 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $181.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.32, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $334.44 and its 200 day moving average is $351.59. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 27,921 shares of company stock worth $9,876,619 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.