Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Buys 8,944 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC boosted its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 29.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 39,755 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,944 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.5% of Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC now owns 4,463 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,197,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Intrua Financial LLC grew its position in Accenture by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $387,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Peak Asset Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Peak Asset Management LLC now owns 5,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,461,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Tucker Asset Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 992 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp grew its position in Accenture by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp now owns 1,804 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $484,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $266.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $282.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 16th. HSBC cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $295.00 to $253.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $274.50.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $168.94 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $112.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a fifty day moving average of $190.50 and a 200 day moving average of $231.18. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $155.82 and a fifty-two week high of $322.86.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $18.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.80 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.82 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.