Archford Capital Strategies LLC Has $2.07 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Archford Capital Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,877 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 102 shares during the quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,067,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 71.2% during the 2nd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $632,000 after acquiring an additional 866 shares during the last quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $233,000. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc lifted its position in Accenture by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 3,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,040,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 74.8% in the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 2,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $357.37 and a 200-day moving average of $347.30. 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 capitalization of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Barclays upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture 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.