Bailard Inc. Purchases 1,429 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bailard Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,133 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,429 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,697,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 40.3% during the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $3.29 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $313.54. 4,125,479 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,408,188. The business has a 50 day moving average of $352.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $342.20. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $210.30 billion, a PE ratio of 28.43, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at $12,937,824.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were 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 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871. 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.