West Branch Capital LLC Has $1.38 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

West Branch Capital LLC boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 27.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 954 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,378,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Everhart Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the first quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,978 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,241,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $7,981,000. Osprey Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Osprey Private Wealth LLC now owns 14,965 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,670,000 after purchasing an additional 2,095 shares during the last quarter. Verity & Verity LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 9,233 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,881,000 after buying an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RMR Wealth Builders grew its position in shares of Accenture by 7.7% during the first quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 5,855 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,827,000 after buying an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, 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 ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $2.12 during trading on Monday, hitting $313.83. The stock had a trading volume of 1,326,775 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,951,881. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market capitalization of $196.56 billion, a PE ratio of 26.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $305.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $335.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus cut 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. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target 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. Seven equities research 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.00.

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.