Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC Increases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 63.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,767 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,077 shares during the quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $971,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 142.9% in the fourth quarter. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. now owns 102 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, 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 transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, 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 transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.67.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE ACN traded up $3.47 on Wednesday, reaching $307.11. The company had a trading volume of 2,292,011 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,512,196. The stock has a market capitalization of $205.99 billion, a PE ratio of 27.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.21. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $325.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $342.99. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $284.90 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio 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.