Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by PDS Planning Inc

PDS Planning Inc grew its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 10.0% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,011 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the quarter. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $940,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.0%

NYSE:ACN opened at $294.71 on Thursday. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $184.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $307.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $332.55.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.