WoodTrust Financial Corp Acquires 1,284 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

WoodTrust Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 29.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,600 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,284 shares during the quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,748,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale 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 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Barclays lowered their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $374.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $295.03 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $184.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.49, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.33. The business's fifty day moving average is $307.08 and its 200 day moving average is $333.04. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

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.

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