Westpac Banking Corp Grows Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Westpac Banking Corp boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,827 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 64.2% during 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 during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $285.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $349.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $354.42. The company has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

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.