Alaethes Wealth LLC Takes $818,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Alaethes Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,326 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $818,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $182,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during 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. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $255,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $305.49 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $308.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $345.02. The company has a market cap of $191.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.63, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays cut their price objective 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by 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.

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