Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 504.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 104,933 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 87,585 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 0.7% of Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,822,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 target price (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a filing 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 that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $1.68 during trading on Thursday, reaching $300.34. The company had a trading volume of 2,683,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,500,042. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $201.45 billion, a PE ratio of 27.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s 50-day moving average is $345.84 and its 200 day moving average is $342.03.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 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.