Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. Purchases New Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,831 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $643,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

ACN traded up $1.33 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $311.99. The stock had a trading volume of 2,283,894 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,498,874. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $209.26 billion, a PE ratio of 28.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $340.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $342.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price target on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.