Hendershot Investments Inc. Has $10.47 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Hendershot Investments Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 29,772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,443 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.4% of Hendershot Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Hendershot Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Marcum Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 2,236 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $790,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in Accenture by 31.3% during the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,389 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047 shares during the period. Cypress Wealth Services LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the third quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $421,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Albion Financial Group UT lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.5% in the third quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 48,946 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,302,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its stake in Accenture by 641.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 17,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,242,000 after buying an additional 15,278 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

ACN opened at $386.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $241.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.39, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $362.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $352.03.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

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.