D.A. Davidson & CO. Has $39.58 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 13.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 126,831 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 15,477 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $39,576,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $2.29 on Friday, reaching $304.58. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,616,133 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,902,190. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $309.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $329.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $190.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $273.19 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Accenture Profile

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.