Paradigm Financial Partners LLC Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Paradigm Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,832 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the quarter. Paradigm Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,047,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $0.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $308.01. The company had a trading volume of 3,371,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $342.14. 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 $206.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.92 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. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, 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 directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, 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 directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

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.