Benjamin Edwards Inc. Purchases 3,744 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 155,795 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,744 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 0.8% of Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $54,877,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays decreased their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $305.49 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $191.34 billion, a PE ratio of 25.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $308.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $344.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.