Ethic Inc. Has $24.65 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ethic Inc. grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 70,064 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,358 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 0.5% of Ethic Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M3 Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. M3 Advisory Group LLC now owns 753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $265,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were 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 $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,016 shares of company stock worth $1,694,866. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group cut 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. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

ACN stock opened at $308.74 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $305.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $343.13. The company has a market capitalization of $193.37 billion, a PE ratio of 25.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Accenture Company 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.