Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC Has $1.10 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,115 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 228 shares during the period. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,096,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.30. 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 stock has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

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.