Professional Advisory Services Inc. Buys 6,740 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Professional Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 67,278 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,740 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 2.9% of Professional Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Professional Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $20,993,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 28.1% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $90,425,000 after buying an additional 56,829 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $321,000. Finally, Sycomore Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 93.1% in the fourth quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 57,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,367,000 after buying an additional 27,596 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $317.49 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $198.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.64, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $303.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $337.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.