Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Position Raised by Confluence Wealth Services Inc.

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 23.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,952 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 943 shares during the quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,427,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Visionary Wealth Advisors raised its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. United Community Bank boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. United Community Bank now owns 2,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,863,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $295.26 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $308.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $331.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $184.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.51, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Benchmark restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.