Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Makes New $142,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 405 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $142,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. United Bank raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.3% during the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the first quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $30,148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the first quarter worth about $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.6% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,459,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 104.8% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,871,000 after buying an additional 225,943 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:ACN traded up $0.88 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $316.88. The company had a trading volume of 3,381,612 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,947,733. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $212.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.73, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $355.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.69 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

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.