Simplicity Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 404.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,298 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 6,653 shares during the quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,589,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted 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 purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP lifted its position in Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Transactions at Accenture
In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several research firms recently commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.14.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on ACN
Accenture Stock Performance
Shares of Accenture stock traded up $4.17 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $320.79. 2,355,427 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,964,921. The stock has a market cap of $200.92 billion, a PE ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The stock's fifty day moving average is $303.16 and its 200 day moving average is $336.65. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. 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 (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.
About Accenture
(
Free Report)
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.
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