Islay Capital Management LLC Purchases 501 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Islay Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 30.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,134 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the quarter. Islay Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.6 %

Accenture stock traded down $1.79 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $301.37. 1,995,137 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,456,486. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $348.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $342.34.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a 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 target price of $387.00.

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.