POM Investment Strategies LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 64.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $31,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $386.72 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $362.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $352.34. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $242.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.44, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group raised their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Corporate 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.