Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Valley National Advisers Inc.

Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 147.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 246 shares during the quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $144,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brave Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC increased its position in Accenture by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in Accenture by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 6,062 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,127,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 9,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,847,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 712 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $334.44 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $363.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $341.84. The firm has a market cap of $224.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.32, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 167,831 shares in the company, valued at $60,884,051.87. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,884,051.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.