Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Increased by Everett Harris & Co. CA

Everett Harris & Co. CA increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 373,737 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 866 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.9% of Everett Harris & Co. CA’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position. Everett Harris & Co. CA owned 0.06% of Accenture worth $131,148,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. United Bank grew its position in Accenture by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the first quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,168 shares in the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 104.8% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $148,871,000 after buying an additional 225,943 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target 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, 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. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $4.57 on Wednesday, hitting $340.96. 3,294,248 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,281,087. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $369.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $340.37. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $213.89 billion, a PE ratio of 30.91, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.20.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.