Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Buys 40 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,034 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $358,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $263,421,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Bank of America reduced their price target on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Mizuho reduced their price target on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $352.74.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $303.83 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $190.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.82, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $299.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $335.76.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.