Evergreen Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,439,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $666,495,000. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,751,000 after purchasing an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 27,921 shares of company stock worth $9,876,619. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. 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 note on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $285.66 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a PE ratio of 23.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $330.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $350.70.

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. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Accenture Company 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.