Ewa LLC Raises Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ewa LLC increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,564 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the quarter. Ewa LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $583,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Naviter Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 5,070 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,779,000 after buying an additional 1,101 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 67.8% in the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 2,942 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,032,000 after buying an additional 1,189 shares in the last quarter. McAdam LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 1,218 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $427,000 after buying an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $2,782,000. Finally, Silver Oak Securities Incorporated increased its stake in Accenture by 84.7% in the fourth quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 820 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $288,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $4.81 on Monday, hitting $303.20. The company had a trading volume of 2,382,882 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,433,387. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $342.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS 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 business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $550,399.54. Following the sale, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 target price (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup reduced their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.