Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 51 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $349,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during 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 period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Accenture by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after purchasing an additional 443,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.5% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Guggenheim began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $7.59 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $305.95. 1,656,364 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,397,171. The stock has a market cap of $205.21 billion, a PE ratio of 27.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s fifty day moving average is $352.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $342.20. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for 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 company’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current 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 yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

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.