YHB Investment Advisors Inc. Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

YHB Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 863 shares during the period. YHB Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Buffington Mohr McNeal increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Buffington Mohr McNeal now owns 1,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $633,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Legacy Bridge LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 79.3% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Bridge LLC now owns 3,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,181,000 after buying an additional 1,485 shares during the period. Greenup Street Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $297,000. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $719,000. Finally, Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $336,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. 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. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $372.99 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $233.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $348.01.

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 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 the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company 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 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 1.59%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.