Accelerate Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 93 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Accelerate Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 14.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 727 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the quarter. Accelerate Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $227,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in 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 worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $312.03 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company’s 50 day moving average is $306.40 and its 200 day moving average is $334.90. The company has a market cap of $195.43 billion, a PE ratio of 25.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.