Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 936 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $329,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $394,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Avestar Capital LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 30.7% during the third quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,178,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 2.4% in the third quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 12,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,578,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares during the period. Cynosure Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 1,504 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 209.4% during the 3rd quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 5,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,042,000 after acquiring an additional 3,910 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE ACN opened at $311.38 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $356.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $356.56. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $194.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. This trade represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

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.