USA Financial Formulas Takes $616,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,975 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $616,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded down $1.20 during trading on Thursday, reaching $318.02. The company had a trading volume of 2,192,507 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,958,130. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $304.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $199.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. 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 note on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.62.

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.