Silver Oak Securities Incorporated Buys 376 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Silver Oak Securities Incorporated increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 84.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 820 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 376 shares during the period. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated’s holdings in Accenture were worth $288,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The sale 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 firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $298.56 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $345.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $342.03. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $200.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.19.

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, 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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

About Accenture

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.