Brookstone Capital Management Has $4.14 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 45.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,948 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,716 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,141,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ACN. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 29,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,248,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the period. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,559 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,671,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,315,832,000 after acquiring an additional 96,414 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Redwood Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,542 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Accenture in a report on Monday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Piper Sandler Companies reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were 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 directly owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $304.60 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $204.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.89, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $300.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $336.88.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. 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.