Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. Invests $239,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 680 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $239,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 34.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $729,230,000 after purchasing an additional 611,376 shares during the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 71.4% during the fourth quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $487,309,000 after buying an additional 578,610 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 33,484.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $199,167,000 after buying an additional 565,882 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased 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. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of ACN traded down $1.33 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $301.83. 787,003 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,442,238. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $348.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.34. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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 is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.