Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Schear Investment Advisers LLC

Schear Investment Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,651 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.2% of Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,281,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brave Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $267,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 6,062 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,127,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jag Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 9,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,847,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.73 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $316.73. 1,586,498 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,366,201. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $356.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $341.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.65, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its 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. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.