Naples Global Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Naples Global Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 27,587 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 167 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 0.9% of Naples Global Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Naples Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,705,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Diversified Portfolios Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Portfolios Inc. now owns 1,882 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $662,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 28.1% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $90,425,000 after buying an additional 56,829 shares in the last quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Jmac Enterprises LLC now owns 2,379 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $837,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 2,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,038,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. now owns 1,605 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $565,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $388.85 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $363.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $353.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $243.34 billion, a PE ratio of 32.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. 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 plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research 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 Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now 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 sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.