Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC Acquires 604 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,275 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 604 shares during the quarter. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,152,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.76.

Accenture Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $323.17 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $302.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $341.53. The company has a market capitalization of $202.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 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%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.