Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,046 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 529 shares during the quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,631,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 142.9% in the 4th quarter. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. now owns 102 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price objective (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.24.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 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 at this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 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 at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $4.94 on Friday, reaching $300.99. The stock had a trading volume of 2,048,661 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,867,473. The company has a market cap of $201.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 1.21. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $321.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $342.59. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $285.18 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast 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 was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

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.