Ballast Inc. Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ballast Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $326,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,644,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,221,897,000 after purchasing an additional 190,412 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Accenture by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $346.10 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $369.12 and its 200-day moving average is $340.38. The company has a market capitalization of $217.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,884,051.87. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,884,051.87. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler lifted 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. Wedbush lifted their target price on Accenture from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research 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 research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.