City National Bank of Florida MSD Buys Shares of 1,085 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

City National Bank of Florida MSD bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 1,085 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $382,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,725 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $607,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the period. Pinnacle Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $264,000. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $99,000. Novem Group purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $440,000. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 152,261 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $53,564,000 after purchasing an additional 15,133 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of ACN traded up $5.55 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $315.13. 1,279,305 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,992,631. The company's fifty day moving average price is $301.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $339.65. The company has a market capitalization of $197.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict 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 was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. 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. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.14.

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.