Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Boosted by Welch Group LLC

Welch Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,415 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,040 shares during the quarter. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,517,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its stake in Accenture by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6%

Accenture stock opened at $317.81 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.05 billion, a PE ratio of 26.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a 50 day moving average of $302.48 and a 200-day moving average of $339.04.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

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.