ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 973 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 87,177 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 973 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $30,668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,452 shares of company stock valued at $5,934,343. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $352.33 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 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. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $357.59 and a 200 day moving average of $345.93.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.