Vista Investment Partners LLC Purchases 42 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vista Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,270 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 1.5% of Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,668,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. KFG Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. KFG Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,584 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $557,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 5,877 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,067,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas now owns 113,237 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $39,835,000 after acquiring an additional 4,918 shares during the period. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 4,107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,445,000 after acquiring an additional 767 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Running Oak Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC now owns 38,774 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,640,000 after purchasing an additional 2,680 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $362.65 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $357.37 and its 200 day moving average is $347.30. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reduced 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. Barclays raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

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.