Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp Makes New Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,293 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $455,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 452,741 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $159,270,000 after buying an additional 4,356 shares during the last quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 71.2% during the 4th quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 777 shares during the last quarter. Potentia Wealth bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $369,000. PKS Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $246,000. Finally, Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 1,693 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $596,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $308.97 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. 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 company has a market cap of $193.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $356.88.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.91.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.