EFG Asset Management North America Corp. Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

EFG Asset Management North America Corp. raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,895 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 725 shares during the period. EFG Asset Management North America Corp.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,132,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake 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 buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $307.24 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $358.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $357.10. The firm has a market cap of $192.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Barclays dropped their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.91.

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.