SlateStone Wealth LLC Buys 1,710 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

SlateStone Wealth LLC grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 15,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,710 shares during the quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,356,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim began coverage on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $316.83 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $353.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $342.40. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

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.