Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp

Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,780 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the quarter. Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $625,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Twin Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $3,932,000. Flossbach Von Storch AG grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 388,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $136,366,000 after purchasing an additional 8,472 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 56,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,832,000 after purchasing an additional 2,744 shares during the last quarter. Key Financial Inc grew its position in shares of Accenture by 999.7% in the fourth quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 3,431 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after purchasing an additional 3,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oakworth Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 650 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $228,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price target (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 41,750 shares of company stock valued at $14,543,436. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $1.46 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $316.00. 2,995,221 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,377,311. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $357.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $341.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $211.95 billion, a PE ratio of 28.53, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

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.