Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Atwater Malick LLC

Atwater Malick LLC grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,021 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 942 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 4.1% of Atwater Malick LLC's holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Atwater Malick LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $12,176,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 38.7% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 56,678 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,156,000 after purchasing an additional 15,821 shares during the period. Country Club Bank grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 3,770 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,329,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 95.2% during the fourth quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,529 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,945,000 after buying an additional 2,696 shares during the period. Finally, NovaPoint Capital LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. NovaPoint Capital LLC now owns 13,466 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,737,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $315.14 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $303.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $337.50. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $197.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.14.

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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