Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 15.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 627,776 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 85,978 shares during the quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Accenture worth $195,891,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its position in Accenture by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP grew its position in Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,863,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sentinus LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $268,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target 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. Piper Sandler reduced 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. Barclays reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Eight investment 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 company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $365.43.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was 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 directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE ACN traded up $1.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $283.10. The stock had a trading volume of 2,629,706 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,347,475. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $177.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.54, 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $303.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $322.87.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

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.