Sunesis Advisors LLC Invests $227,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sunesis Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 647 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $31,000. RVW Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Tyler Stone Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.7 %

ACN traded up $5.67 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $346.61. The company had a trading volume of 3,614,949 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,935,126. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $217.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50-day moving average of $368.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $340.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.1 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 167,831 shares in the company, valued at $60,884,051.87. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,884,051.87. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.