LPL Financial LLC Has $208.45 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 592,510 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 59,976 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Accenture worth $208,449,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

ACN stock traded down $1.09 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $310.08. The stock had a trading volume of 1,135,648 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,243,266. The firm has a market cap of $194.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.03, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $356.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $356.56.

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Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $378.23.

About Accenture

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.