Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Acquires 12,872 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 524.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,327 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 12,872 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lipe & Dalton grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2,087.4% in the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,570,000 after acquiring an additional 4,801 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $321,000. United Bank acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $758,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $365.43.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $4.39 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $281.65. The company had a trading volume of 3,950,275 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,331,526. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $304.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $323.36. The company has a market cap of $176.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. 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 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors 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 yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.