Welch & Forbes LLC Buys 4,341 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Welch & Forbes LLC boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 117,425 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,341 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $41,206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its stake 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 worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of ACN traded up $2.39 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $306.10. 2,361,326 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,501,520. The company has a market cap of $205.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $341.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $342.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.