State Street Corp Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 28,264,675 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 129,610 shares during the period. State Street Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,583,462,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. McMillan Office Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 96.4% in the fourth quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 108 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. This trade represents a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $275.00 to $248.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Truist Financial lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $260.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Monday, June 1st. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $282.00 to $258.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $210.00 to $199.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.89.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $169.95 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.08. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $155.82 and a fifty-two week high of $317.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $181.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $221.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $18.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.80 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. Accenture’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.82 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.40%.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.