Lincoln National Corp Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Lincoln National Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 37.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,536 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,323 shares during the quarter. Lincoln National Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $4.60 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $310.66. 2,483,497 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,501,316. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $208.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $341.52 and its 200-day moving average is $342.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

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.