Bank OZK Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bank OZK boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,931 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the quarter. Bank OZK’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,730,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 82.1% during the fourth quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 377 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $132,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC grew its position 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 valued at $1,116,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Equity Partners grew its position in shares of Accenture by 29.7% during the fourth quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 3,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,073,000 after purchasing an additional 701 shares in the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $264,000. Finally, K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $262,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN traded down $0.99 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $308.01. 3,371,848 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,670,314. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $349.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $341.94. The company has a market capitalization of $206.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price target (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

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.