Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Acquires 374 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 19.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,288 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 374 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $793,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invera Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 82.1% in the first quarter. Invera Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,080 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,605,000 after purchasing an additional 2,291 shares in the last quarter. Legacy CG LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.6% in the first quarter. Legacy CG LLC now owns 12,193 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,226,000 after purchasing an additional 965 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.8% in the first quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 3,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.8% in the first quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 727 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Donaldson Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the first quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 229,458 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $79,532,000 after purchasing an additional 1,371 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $2.24 on Tuesday, hitting $300.92. The stock had a trading volume of 5,224,552 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,496,410. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The business’s 50 day moving average is $347.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $342.34. The stock has a market cap of $201.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was 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 directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Guggenheim began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Bank of America lifted their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.