Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp Raises Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,780 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 133 shares during the period. Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $625,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. United Bank increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $30,148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,168 shares during the period. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 104.8% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $148,871,000 after acquiring an additional 225,943 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $1.46 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $316.00. The stock had a trading volume of 2,995,221 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,377,311. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $211.95 billion, a PE ratio of 28.53, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $357.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $341.95.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic increased their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,750 shares of company stock valued at $14,543,436 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture 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.