Veritas Investment Partners UK Ltd. Purchases 112,376 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Veritas Investment Partners UK Ltd. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 764,416 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 112,376 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 5.8% of Veritas Investment Partners UK Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. Veritas Investment Partners UK Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $268,352,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jump Financial LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 3.6% during the third quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 917 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Accenture by 3.4% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 113,936 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,991,000 after buying an additional 3,735 shares during the last quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 33.1% in the 3rd quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc now owns 205 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. now owns 1,802 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $553,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Choreo LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 1,753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $288.40 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $308.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $340.29. The stock has a market cap of $193.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th were given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $373.00.

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.