Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Boosts Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. increased its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 57,449 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,227 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,927,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 47.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $317,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $300.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $309.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $328.80. The company has a market capitalization of $188.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.92, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors 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 yield of 1.97%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Argus set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $370.71.

Accenture Company 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.