143 Shares in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Bought by Garde Capital Inc.

Garde Capital Inc. bought a new position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $45,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 1,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $406,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $63,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $74,000. Finally, Dahring Cusmano LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $283,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $285.66 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $306.98 and a 200 day moving average of $333.68. The company has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.74, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays dropped their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Profile

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.