Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,371 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,447,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, RVW Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at $7,553,691.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.09 during trading on Friday, reaching $316.09. The company had a trading volume of 1,447,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,364,353. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.01 billion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $356.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.77.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Accenture 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.