Stephens Inc. AR Purchases 1,269 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 6.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,269 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $281.01 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.37, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $309.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $326.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business 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 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Benchmark restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company 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.