NewEdge Advisors LLC Purchases 3,802 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,555 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,802 shares during the quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $26,579,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Evergreen Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,439,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 419.1% during the 4th quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,471 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,925,000 after acquiring an additional 4,417 shares during the last quarter. Montag & Caldwell LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Montag & Caldwell LLC now owns 29,614 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,418,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839 shares during the last quarter. Kane Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $656,000. Finally, Schwerin Boyle Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Schwerin Boyle Capital Management Inc. now owns 116,815 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,094,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 27,921 shares of company stock valued at $9,876,619 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of ACN opened at $285.66 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $330.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $350.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a PE ratio of 23.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.