Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Advisory Services Network LLC

Advisory Services Network LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,469 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,206 shares during the period. Advisory Services Network LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,256,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $281.00 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.57, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $344.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $353.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This trade represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.