Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third 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. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $387.99 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 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $364.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $353.68.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus 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.