Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Has $938,000 Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 17.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,006 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 444 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $938,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lipe & Dalton lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2,087.4% in the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,570,000 after buying an additional 4,801 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $321,000. United Bank acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $758,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $246.07 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $154.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $236.67 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $285.33 and a 200-day moving average of $312.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

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.