GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. Takes $295,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 842 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 40.3% during the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $303.71 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $342.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $342.23. The firm has a market cap of $203.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its 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 analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Redburn Atlantic increased their price target on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.