Bailard Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bailard Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,133 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,429 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,697,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BIP Wealth LLC increased its position in Accenture by 532.5% during the 4th quarter. BIP Wealth LLC now owns 4,548 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,829 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 21,753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,633,000 after purchasing an additional 2,374 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its position in Accenture by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $349,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Wynn Capital LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $503,000. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp increased its position in Accenture by 65.7% during the 4th quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 6,845 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,402,000 after purchasing an additional 2,713 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $3.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $313.54. The company had a trading volume of 4,125,479 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,408,188. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $352.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $342.20. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.43, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock worth $13,645,871 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America upped their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Company 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.