First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA Buys 2,946 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 475.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,566 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 2,946 shares during the quarter. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,254,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,291 shares of company stock worth $7,880,886 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $5.46 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $284.69. The company's stock had a trading volume of 782,885 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,996,875. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.90, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $324.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $349.02. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued 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. 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

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.