Foster & Motley Inc. Has $6.20 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Foster & Motley Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,613 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,196,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 58.1% in the 4th quarter. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,398 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $492,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the period. Field & Main Bank raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Field & Main Bank now owns 5,520 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,942,000 after buying an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 146.5% in the fourth quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 2,105 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $741,000 after buying an additional 1,251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $522,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $375.13 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $358.27 and its 200-day moving average is $349.02. The firm has a market cap of $234.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

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.