UP Strategic Wealth Investment Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

UP Strategic Wealth Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 855 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 124 shares during the period. UP Strategic Wealth Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $301,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.9% during the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,169,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares during the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $291.43 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $182.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $318.01 and a 200 day moving average of $347.71. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Mizuho cut their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by 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.