MCF Advisors LLC Purchases 108 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

MCF Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 852 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $299,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 40.3% during the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.08 during trading on Monday, hitting $316.96. The company had a trading volume of 501,532 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,364,478. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $355.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. BNP Paribas raised 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,500 shares of company stock valued at $12,276,123 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.