Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC

Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 866 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $31,000. RVW Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Tyler Stone Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $346.10 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $369.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $340.38. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $261.68 and a fifty-two week 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price target for the company. Finally, TD Cowen reduced 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. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,884,051.87. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 167,831 shares in the company, valued at $60,884,051.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.