Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Evernest Financial Advisors LLC

Evernest Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,410 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 161 shares during the quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,551,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Accenture Trading Up 1.7 %

ACN stock opened at $380.78 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $358.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $349.20. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $238.29 billion, a PE ratio of 31.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.