Simmons Bank Has $1.97 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Simmons Bank trimmed its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,205 shares during the quarter. Simmons Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,969,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Brave Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Searle & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $267,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carr Financial Group Corp lifted its position in Accenture by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 1,245 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $437,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $4.60 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $310.66. 2,483,561 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,501,316. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $208.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $340.17 and its 200 day moving average is $342.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture 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.