Bleakley Financial Group LLC Raises Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 18,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. 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 report 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $397.92 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $360.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $351.08. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $249.01 billion, a PE ratio of 33.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.