Ballast Inc. Makes New $326,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ballast Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $326,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in 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 worth $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,644,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,221,897,000 after buying an additional 190,412 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Accenture by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% during the 3rd 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. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd 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. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $346.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $217.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $369.12 and its 200-day moving average is $340.38. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly 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. The company 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 was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Citigroup cut their price objective 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. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, 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 worth $11,146,998 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.