Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Stonebrook Private Inc.

Stonebrook Private Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the quarter. Stonebrook Private Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $388,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M3 Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. M3 Advisory Group LLC now owns 753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $265,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $317.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $302.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $341.18. Accenture plc has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $198.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays reduced their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $381.76.

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.