Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Focus Partners Wealth

Focus Partners Wealth grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 57.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 414,054 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 150,786 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth owned about 0.07% of Accenture worth $151,998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,016 shares of company stock valued at $1,694,866 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $307.85 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $304.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $342.69. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. 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 company has a market capitalization of $192.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.83, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.

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