Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Boosted by AlphaCore Capital LLC

AlphaCore Capital LLC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 191.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,450 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 2,267 shares during the quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,214,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.14.

Accenture Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $1.83 on Thursday, reaching $317.82. 1,433,792 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,994,038. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day moving average of $302.27 and a 200 day moving average of $339.31. 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 market capitalization of $199.06 billion, a PE ratio of 26.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. On average, equities research 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 was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 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.