Principle Wealth Partners LLC Purchases 4,177 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Principle Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 56.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 11,590 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,177 shares during the quarter. Principle Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,067,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brave Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $267,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 1,245 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $437,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PDS Planning Inc grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 2,372 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $832,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $0.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $308.01. 3,371,848 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $342.14. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.