Good Steward Wealth Advisors LLC Invests $417,000 in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Good Steward Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,335 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $417,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.6% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $317,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $350,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 12th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.00.

Accenture Trading Down 6.8%

NYSE:ACN traded down $20.72 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $285.66. The company's stock had a trading volume of 11,638,670 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,952,220. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $306.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $333.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by 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.