Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Lipe & Dalton

Lipe & Dalton grew its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2,087.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 4,801 shares during the period. Lipe & Dalton's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,570,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $282.37. 4,207,339 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,909,827. The company has a market cap of $176.86 billion, a PE ratio of 22.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $273.19 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $306.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $324.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46.

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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $365.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Company 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.