Davidson Trust Co. Buys 121 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Davidson Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $534,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. United Bank raised its position in shares of Accenture by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $30,148,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares during the period. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,459,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 104.8% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $148,871,000 after buying an additional 225,943 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total value of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen cut their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price target for the company. Citigroup cut their price target on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded down $0.58 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $315.42. 1,075,875 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,358,668. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $356.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.77. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $211.56 billion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.