Calamos Advisors LLC Buys 1,120 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Calamos Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 102,834 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,120 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $32,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. United Community Bank lifted its position in Accenture by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. United Community Bank now owns 2,069 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $728,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,863,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded up $2.29 on Friday, hitting $304.58. 1,616,133 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,901,159. The firm has a market cap of $190.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $309.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $329.56.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate 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 Friday, August 15th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective 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. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

About Accenture

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.