Ballast Advisors LLC Purchases 293 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ballast Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,183 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,823,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,751,000 after purchasing an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in Accenture by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,909,000 after purchasing an additional 826,038 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $384.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $300.86 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $188.28 billion, a PE ratio of 25.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $360.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $357.39. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

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.