National Bank of Canada FI Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 28.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 421,961 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 94,149 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned about 0.07% of Accenture worth $146,118,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Brave Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Searle & CO. raised its stake in Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $267,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carr Financial Group Corp grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 1,245 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $437,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $3.37 during trading on Friday, hitting $303.71. 2,767,141 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $342.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $341.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were 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 owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.