Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Plancorp LLC

Plancorp LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 137 shares during the quarter. Plancorp LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $590,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 45.8% during the fourth quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 59,222 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,834,000 after purchasing an additional 18,604 shares in the last quarter. Fi3 FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Fi3 FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC now owns 1,130 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $397,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Sciencast Management LP increased its position in shares of Accenture by 106.2% during the fourth quarter. Sciencast Management LP now owns 7,396 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,602,000 after purchasing an additional 3,810 shares in the last quarter. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 202.5% in the 4th quarter. Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. now owns 81,119 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,537,000 after purchasing an additional 54,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

ACN opened at $305.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $359.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $357.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. 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 research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.05.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% 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.