Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Increased by Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,880 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Accenture by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after acquiring an additional 443,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,340,568,000 after acquiring an additional 20,876 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price objective (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $4.60 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $310.66. The company had a trading volume of 2,483,561 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,501,316. The company has a market capitalization of $208.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $340.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.35. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. 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 Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the 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 transaction, 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.