Blue Trust Inc. Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,134 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,217 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,298,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Maverick Capital Ltd. boosted its stake in Accenture by 71.2% during the second quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $632,000 after buying an additional 866 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 10.6% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 9,461 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,871,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares during the period. Annandale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at $532,000. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.7% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 234,731 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $71,220,000 after purchasing an additional 10,559 shares during the period. Finally, Copperwynd Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 30.9% during the second quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 2,511 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $830,000 after purchasing an additional 593 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $362.65 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $357.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $347.64.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,196 shares of company stock worth $3,226,918. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

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.