Stonegate Investment Group LLC Boosts Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Stonegate Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,729 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. Stonegate Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,404,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 38,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,385,000 after acquiring an additional 4,739 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 6,720 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,364,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 28,673 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,087,000 after acquiring an additional 637 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 77.0% during the 4th quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 4,231 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,488,000 after purchasing an additional 1,840 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $285.66 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $273.19 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $306.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $333.86. The firm has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Benchmark reissued a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus cut 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. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.00.

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.