Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc. Takes $211,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Alan B Lancz & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 600 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,048,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the last quarter. Jacobsen Capital Management bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $220,000. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 12.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 3,530 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,084,000 after buying an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 23,032 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,073,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Harvest Investment Services grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 61.2% in the third quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 3,815 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,172,000 after acquiring an additional 1,448 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $3.37 during trading on Friday, reaching $303.71. The company had a trading volume of 2,767,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,150,080. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day moving average of $342.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $341.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

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.