Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,042 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,991 shares during the quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,367,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after acquiring an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Seven investment 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $382.14.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $320.79 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $200.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $303.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $336.54. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.