Brookstone Capital Management Raises Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Brookstone Capital Management raised its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 32.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,194 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,036 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,309,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its stake in Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its stake 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 buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Sentinus LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Guggenheim cut their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7%

ACN stock traded down $2.12 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $301.21. The company had a trading volume of 337,591 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,891,952. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $309.78 and a 200-day moving average of $328.62. The stock has a market cap of $188.66 billion, a PE ratio of 23.98, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 directly owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.