West Paces Advisors Inc. Raises Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

West Paces Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 23.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $110,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, RVW Wealth LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $313.94 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $210.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a fifty day moving average of $358.39 and a 200-day moving average of $342.14.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

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.