L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Has $40.43 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 115,218 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 788 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 5.0% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $40,431,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted 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 last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $31,000. RVW Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Tyler Stone Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value 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 approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value 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 approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $5.67 on Friday, hitting $346.61. 3,614,949 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,935,126. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $368.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $340.42. The company has a market cap of $217.43 billion, a PE ratio of 31.42, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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