Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Davidson Trust Co.

Davidson Trust Co. grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, RVW Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $0.58 during trading on Friday, reaching $315.42. 1,075,875 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,358,668. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $356.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $341.77. The company has a market cap of $211.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123. 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.