Essex Financial Services Inc. Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Essex Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,128,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,081 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $732,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 4,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,556,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 57.8% during the fourth quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 9,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,432,000 after purchasing an additional 3,572 shares during the period. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth 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, Sapient Capital LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 5,758 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,026,000 after buying an additional 737 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $390.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $244.19 billion, a PE ratio of 32.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $362.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $352.74. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

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.