Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brave Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $267,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Carr Financial Group Corp increased its stake in Accenture by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 1,245 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $437,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc increased its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 2,372 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $832,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in Accenture by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 6,062 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,127,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $7.59 on Thursday, hitting $305.95. The company had a trading volume of 1,656,364 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,397,171. The company has a market capitalization of $205.21 billion, a PE ratio of 27.83, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $352.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.20. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.