First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Has $5.78 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,481 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,947 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 0.5% of First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest holding. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,783,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price target (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $2.35 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $298.56. The company had a trading volume of 2,617,150 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,497,852. The company has a 50 day moving average of $347.09 and a 200 day moving average of $342.34. The firm has a market cap of $200.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 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 quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

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.