Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. Has $36,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 142.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 102 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 60 shares during the quarter. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 40.3% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.67.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $0.52 during trading on Thursday, reaching $308.00. 2,581,187 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,502,728. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $331.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.63. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $280.23 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $206.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.96, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the 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 owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.