EdgeRock Capital LLC Buys New Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $164,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 2.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,315,832,000 after purchasing an additional 96,414 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,542 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 284.7% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 12,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,449,000 after purchasing an additional 9,382 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 33,484.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $199,167,000 after purchasing an additional 565,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VELA Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 4.3% in the third quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 3,681 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,130,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was 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 approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, 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, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded up $4.60 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $310.66. 2,483,561 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,501,316. The firm has a market capitalization of $208.37 billion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day moving average of $340.17 and a 200-day moving average of $342.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Guggenheim started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective on the stock. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.