First Horizon Advisors Inc. Raises Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 64,982 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 212 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $22,803,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were 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 is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. TD Cowen cut their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.87 during trading on Thursday, hitting $299.53. The stock had a trading volume of 1,321,973 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,483,119. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $345.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $342.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $200.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.