Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC Purchases 156 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $489,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 40.3% during the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $306.56 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $264.42 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $205.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $338.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $342.14.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.