Charles Schwab Investment Advisory Inc. Acquires New Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Charles Schwab Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 603 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,556,676,000 after purchasing an additional 68,635 shares in the last quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 117,425 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,206,000 after buying an additional 4,341 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 5,880 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,063,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 81.7% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 31,070 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,903,000 after acquiring an additional 13,973 shares during the period. Finally, Lincoln National Corp raised its position in shares of Accenture by 37.4% during the fourth quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 8,536 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,995,000 after purchasing an additional 2,323 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly 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 sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded up $4.60 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $310.66. The company had a trading volume of 2,483,561 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,501,316. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $208.37 billion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $340.17 and a 200 day moving average of $342.35.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Bank of America increased their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.