WBI Investments LLC Takes $1.96 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

WBI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 5,561 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,956,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Promus Capital LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $317.45 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $302.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $341.15. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.76.

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.