Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 21,753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,374 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,633,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Accenture by 5.6% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after acquiring an additional 443,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,340,568,000 after purchasing an additional 20,876 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 27,490 shares of company stock valued at $9,056,564. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $0.35 during trading on Friday, hitting $308.65. The stock had a trading volume of 412,391 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,397,347. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $207.02 billion, a PE ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $350.89 and its 200 day moving average is $341.97.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. 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 report on Thursday, March 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Guggenheim assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Company 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.