Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Ashton Thomas Securities LLC

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 26.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,394 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $492,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.91.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

ACN opened at $308.97 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $357.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $356.88. The company has a market cap of $193.35 billion, a PE ratio of 25.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.