Ballast Inc. Invests $326,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ballast Inc. bought a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $326,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Foundation Advisors lifted its position in Accenture by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 11,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,572,000 after acquiring an additional 741 shares during the period. BOKF NA lifted its position in Accenture by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 45,759 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,120,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the period. New Republic Capital LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $606,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,315,832,000 after acquiring an additional 96,414 shares during the period. Finally, Dash Acquisitions Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 34,043 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,361,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 1.5 %

ACN stock opened at $346.10 on Friday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $369.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $340.38.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.