Vest Financial LLC Buys 27,769 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vest Financial LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 30.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 119,916 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 27,769 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $37,419,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, 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 value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.93 on Monday, hitting $316.72. The company had a trading volume of 2,291,246 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,967,361. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $303.15 and a 200-day moving average of $336.95.

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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.