Ritholtz Wealth Management Purchases 2,566 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 42.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,663 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,566 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,703,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC boosted 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 worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded up $2.41 on Monday, hitting $314.12. 2,929,569 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,957,915. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $305.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $335.40. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $196.74 billion, a PE ratio of 26.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.