Larson Financial Group LLC Buys 1,491 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 303.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,983 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,491 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $696,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 34.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $729,230,000 after purchasing an additional 611,376 shares during the period. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in Accenture by 71.4% in the fourth quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $487,309,000 after purchasing an additional 578,610 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 33,484.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $199,167,000 after purchasing an additional 565,882 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% in the third 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 during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $0.03 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $317.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 839,407 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,370,730. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $354.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $342.37. The company has a market cap of $212.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.79, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock worth $13,645,871. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture 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.