Procyon Advisors LLC Has $3.94 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Procyon Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,223 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,098 shares during the quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,938,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. United Bank boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.3% during the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 104.8% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,871,000 after buying an additional 225,943 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $3.49 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $344.43. The company had a trading volume of 398,275 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,247,755. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $216.06 billion, a PE ratio of 30.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $369.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $340.37.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm 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 company’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 46.78%.

About Accenture

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.