Buckhead Capital Management LLC Acquires Shares of 636 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Buckhead Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 636 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ACN. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas raised 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. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Guggenheim initiated 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. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $2.25 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $298.66. 2,612,526 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,497,797. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $200.32 billion, a PE ratio of 27.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $347.09 and its 200-day moving average is $342.34.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.