Savant Capital LLC Purchases 414 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Savant Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 54,875 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 414 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,256,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 180.0% in 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. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 40.3% in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $2.24 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $300.92. The stock had a trading volume of 5,224,552 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,496,410. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $348.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $342.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price objective (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price target (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.