Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by West Paces Advisors Inc.

West Paces Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 23.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $110,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, RVW Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of ACN opened at $313.94 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $358.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $342.14.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture 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.