Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Position Lifted by Schear Investment Advisers LLC

Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,651 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 1.2% of Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,281,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brave Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its position in Accenture by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $267,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp grew its position in Accenture by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 1,245 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $437,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 6,062 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,127,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jag Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 9,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,847,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $0.73 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $316.73. The stock had a trading volume of 1,586,498 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,366,201. The company’s fifty day moving average is $356.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $341.77. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 35,500 shares of company stock valued at $12,276,123 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.