Strengthening Families & Communities LLC Buys 74 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,874 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 74 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.6% of Strengthening Families & Communities LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,770,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% during 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 during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. 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 research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $386.72 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $242.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.44, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. 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 50 day moving average price of $362.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $352.34.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current 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 paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.