Main Street Research LLC Buys 307 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Main Street Research LLC grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,871 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 307 shares during the period. Main Street Research LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,358,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. United Bank lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.3% in 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. increased 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 worth $30,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,168 shares during the period. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. increased 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 worth $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased 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 worth $148,871,000 after purchasing an additional 225,943 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $1.36 on Tuesday, hitting $314.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,467,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,342,045. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $359.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.09. The company has a market capitalization of $211.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm 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 business earned $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares in the company, valued at $60,884,051.87. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.