Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Natixis Advisors L.P.

Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 872,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,049 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 0.8% of Natixis Advisors L.P.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Natixis Advisors L.P. owned 0.14% of Accenture worth $306,130,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 206,392 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $72,425,000 after buying an additional 9,016 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 64,982 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,803,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,196 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $420,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,442 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,208,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. Finally, Heritage Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $2,326,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.85 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $299.51. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,385,507 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,484,358. The business has a fifty day moving average of $345.84 and a 200-day moving average of $342.03. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $200.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% 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.