Manchester Global Management UK Ltd Has $20.50 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Manchester Global Management UK Ltd grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 47.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 58,285 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,813 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 2.7% of Manchester Global Management UK Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Manchester Global Management UK Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $20,504,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % 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, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,291 shares of company stock valued at $7,880,886. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $279.48 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50-day moving average is $324.03 and its 200 day moving average is $349.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.