Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 82.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 377 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 170 shares during the quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $132,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th 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 during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.99 during trading on Friday, reaching $308.01. The stock had a trading volume of 3,371,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $349.66 and its two-hundred 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 for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.