Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 46,042 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,991 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,367,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Integrated Advisors Network LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 18,470 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,763,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885 shares during the period. Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 407.4% in the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the period. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,453,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 141.1% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 167,191 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,170,000 after buying an additional 97,845 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Curated Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 18.4% in the 1st quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of ACN opened at $320.79 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $200.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $303.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.54.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate 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.