620 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Bought by Halter Ferguson Financial Inc.

Halter Ferguson Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 620 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000. Accenture comprises approximately 0.1% of Halter Ferguson Financial Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after buying an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 4.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after buying an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Accenture by 7.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Accenture by 5.6% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after purchasing an additional 443,004 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $2,061,490,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.24.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $4.94 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $300.99. The stock had a trading volume of 2,045,777 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,507,729. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.89 billion, a PE ratio of 27.28, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $285.18 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $322.80 and its 200 day moving average is $342.49.

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, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.