Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 18.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,789 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,498 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,927,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $316.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.36 billion, a PE ratio of 26.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $302.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $338.52.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.