Vontobel Holding Ltd. Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 23.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,132,903 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 212,249 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 1.4% of Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Vontobel Holding Ltd. owned about 0.18% of Accenture worth $398,544,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $389.71 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $243.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.69, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $364.15 and its 200 day moving average is $353.43. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.