Carret Asset Management LLC Buys 289 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Carret Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 7.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,934 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $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 stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 6.8%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $285.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $306.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $333.86.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.