Whitener Capital Management Inc. Raises Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Whitener Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 169.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,642 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,032 shares during the period. Whitener Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $512,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $7.35 during trading on Friday, reaching $281.01. 5,075,765 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,920,596. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $309.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $327.12. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $273.19 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued 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 company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. Accenture's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.13 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. Barclays reduced their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.

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.