Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. Invests $853,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 2,423 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $853,000. Accenture accounts for about 1.3% of Lakeshore Capital Group Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in 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 period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $1.82 on Thursday, reaching $317.81. 2,557,805 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,998,163. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $199.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company's 50-day moving average is $302.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $339.31.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.