Affinity Wealth Management LLC Buys 153 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Affinity Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,715 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 0.9% of Affinity Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Affinity Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,592,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased 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 in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Guggenheim cut their target price 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 equities 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $315.14 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $303.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $337.50. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.44, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Equities analysts predict 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 was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.