Kelly Financial Services LLC Acquires 141 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kelly Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 953 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the period. Kelly Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $298,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5%

ACN stock opened at $319.20 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $304.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $336.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.14.

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.