Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Grows Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 524.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,327 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 12,872 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,783,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $594,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 99.5% during the 4th quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,105 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 592,510 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $208,449,000 after buying an additional 59,976 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $2.33 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $284.78. 1,114,105 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,903,039. The company has a market capitalization of $178.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $306.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $324.37. 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 earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Guggenheim reduced their target price 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. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. 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 research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $365.43.

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.

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