Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Raises Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 304,796 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 14,967 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $105,645,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Brave Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $361,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,116,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Searle & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $478,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $2.35 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $298.56. The stock had a trading volume of 2,617,150 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,497,852. The company has a market capitalization of $200.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $345.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $342.03.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.

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