Asio Capital LLC Purchases 835 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Asio Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,550 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 835 shares during the period. Asio Capital LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $3,604,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $382.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company'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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 2.1%

NYSE ACN traded down $6.76 on Friday, hitting $311.37. 3,102,635 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,958,031. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $305.50 and a 200-day moving average of $335.58. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $195.02 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.