W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. Purchases 159 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 18.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,014 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the period. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $356,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth 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. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America upped their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective 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. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE ACN traded up $3.37 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $303.71. The company had a trading volume of 2,767,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $342.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.23. The company has a market capitalization of $203.71 billion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.