Osprey Private Wealth LLC Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Osprey Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 16.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,965 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,095 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 2.8% of Osprey Private Wealth LLC's holdings, making the stock its 15th largest position. Osprey Private Wealth LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $4,670,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th 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 period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th 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 period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the 4th 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 period. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the 4th 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 period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.15.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their position. 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. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $6.76 on Friday, hitting $311.37. 3,102,635 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,958,057. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. 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 plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $304.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $336.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.