Beck Mack & Oliver LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Beck Mack & Oliver LLC grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,466 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the quarter. Beck Mack & Oliver LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $516,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $282.28 on Friday. 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 one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $176.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $326.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $349.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities 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 Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded 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. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.82.

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.