State of Wyoming Acquires Shares of 3,292 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

State of Wyoming purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 3,292 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,158,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE ACN traded down $2.20 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $317.98. 2,788,010 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,991,557. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $302.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $340.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.16 billion, a PE ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm'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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities 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 data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $381.76.

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.