Beacon Wealthcare LLC Acquires New Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Beacon Wealthcare LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 1,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $575,000. Accenture accounts for 0.3% of Beacon Wealthcare LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th 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. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 214.8% in the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on ACN. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $357.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.6 %

ACN opened at $307.21 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $206.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.22. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $301.03 and its 200-day moving average is $337.09. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

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.