585 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Acquired by Meritage Portfolio Management

Meritage Portfolio Management acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 585 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $307.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $206.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day moving average of $341.94.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. 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. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.