Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. Boosts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,605 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the quarter. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $565,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Advisors Inc. OK boosted its position in Accenture by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 277,853 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $97,746,000 after purchasing an additional 2,281 shares in the last quarter. Certuity LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Certuity LLC now owns 1,461 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 5,212 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,834,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Sage Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Sage Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,177 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $414,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. now owns 30,722 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,808,000 after acquiring an additional 892 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $390.21 on Wednesday. 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 plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $244.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $362.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $352.74.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % 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, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

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.