Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. Increases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 3,538 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,242,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $3.37 on Friday, reaching $303.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,767,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $203.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $342.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $341.73.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

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.