World Investment Advisors raised its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 22.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,119 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,127 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors' holdings in Accenture were worth $5,342,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company'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 transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% 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 valued at $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Barclays dropped 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, June 23rd. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a 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 objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $370.71.
Get Our Latest Research Report on ACN
Accenture Stock Down 1.4%
Shares of ACN traded down $4.30 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $300.48. 2,752,818 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,900,565. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $188.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $309.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $329.26.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. Research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.
Accenture Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.
Accenture Company Profile
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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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