J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Increases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,547 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,245,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 101,214.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,078,141,000 after acquiring an additional 4,036,414 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of 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 worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,560,765,000 after acquiring an additional 704,657 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised 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. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $316.88 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $355.21 and its 200-day moving average is $342.31. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $212.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.73, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.