Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,996 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,312 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 2.5% of Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $23,714,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 47.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 670 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $236,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Guardian Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $594,000. Finally, Evoke Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 5,088 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,790,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Accenture Stock Down 0.1%
Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.33 during trading on Friday, hitting $282.37. 4,207,339 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,926,240. The business's fifty day moving average is $306.83 and its 200 day moving average is $325.21. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.13%.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $365.43.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on ACN
Accenture Profile
(
Free Report)
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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