Running Oak Capital LLC Buys 4,996 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Running Oak Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 12.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,770 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 4,996 shares during the quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $13,658,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $374.00.

Accenture Stock Up 3.4%

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $9.66 during trading on Monday, reaching $295.03. 5,449,311 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,940,172. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $306.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $333.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.79 billion, a PE ratio of 23.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.