Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 19.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 291,100 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 48,046 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 3.2% of Tandem Investment Advisors Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $90,835,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 47.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after buying an additional 789 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $317,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Accenture
Accenture Trading Up 0.8%
ACN stock traded up $2.29 during trading on Friday, reaching $304.58. The company had a trading volume of 1,616,133 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,901,159. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $273.19 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $190.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a 50 day moving average of $309.55 and a 200 day moving average of $329.68. 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 released its quarterly 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 net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The firm 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
About Accenture
(
Free Report)
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.
See Also
Before you consider Accenture, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Accenture wasn't on the list.
While Accenture currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
MarketBeat just released its list of 10 cheap stocks that have been overlooked by the market and may be seriously undervalued. Enter your email address and below to see which companies made the list.
Get This Free Report
