Bailard Inc. Boosts Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Bailard Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 57,258 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,867,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $32,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $365.43.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.33 on Friday, hitting $282.37. The company had a trading volume of 4,207,339 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,909,827. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $306.32 and a 200-day moving average of $324.54. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.