Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 130,338 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 6,203 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH's holdings in Accenture were worth $40,671,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC boosted its stake in 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. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $1.20 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $318.02. The stock had a trading volume of 2,192,507 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,958,129. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $304.23 and a 200 day moving average of $336.42. The stock has a market cap of $199.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% 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 Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Barclays lowered their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. 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. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $380.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other 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 now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.