Wedbush Securities Inc. Has $2.13 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wedbush Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,065 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,134,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,866,000. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 28.8% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 31,967 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $11,300,000 after purchasing an additional 7,151 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $550,000. Finally, Zacks Investment Management lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 17.3% in the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 115,010 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $40,654,000 after buying an additional 16,946 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $285.04 on Friday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $349.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $354.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a PE ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.