Welch & Forbes LLC Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Welch & Forbes LLC increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 117,425 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,341 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $41,206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after acquiring an additional 184,541 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 5.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after buying an additional 443,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,398,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,340,568,000 after acquiring an additional 20,876 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, 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 SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $2.39 on Monday, hitting $306.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,361,326 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,501,520. The company has a market capitalization of $205.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $341.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.26.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm 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 for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders 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 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Accenture 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.