Aurora Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 16,603 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,181,000.
Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mattern Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.9% during the first quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 28,932 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $9,028,000 after purchasing an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,891 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,838,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Field & Main Bank increased its stake in Accenture by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Field & Main Bank now owns 5,800 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,810,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 24.1% during the 1st quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 7,296 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,277,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 9.7% in the first quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,585 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $495,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Accenture Trading Down 0.3%
ACN stock traded down $0.82 during trading on Friday, hitting $295.26. The company had a trading volume of 4,159,093 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,942,878. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $308.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $331.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.51, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven 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.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.71.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on Accenture
Insider Activity at Accenture
In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% 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 three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
About Accenture
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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.
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