Ritholtz Wealth Management Has $2.70 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 42.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,566 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,703,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 2.1%

NYSE:ACN opened at $311.37 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $305.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $335.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays cut their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.15.

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.