Park Avenue Securities LLC Boosts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 36,459 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 649 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,377,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.8% during the first quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,452 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. boosted its stake in Accenture by 231.9% during the first quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 312 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Professional Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 11.1% during the first quarter. Professional Advisory Services Inc. now owns 67,278 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,993,000 after buying an additional 6,740 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.6% during the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 38,854 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,124,000 after buying an additional 2,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 55.4% during the first quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $468,000 after buying an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $317.49 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $303.15 and its 200-day moving average is $337.11. The stock has a market cap of $198.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.