Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Increased by Willis Investment Counsel

Willis Investment Counsel boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 115,661 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 648 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 2.7% of Willis Investment Counsel’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Accenture were worth $40,688,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, 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 directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research 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, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

ACN opened at $384.88 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $359.56 and its 200-day moving average is $350.06. The company has a market capitalization of $240.86 billion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. 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 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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.