Congress Asset Management Co. Purchases 886 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Congress Asset Management Co. grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 68,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 886 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $191,000. Aveo Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,304 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 4,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,447,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. BXM Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $571,000. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV increased its position in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 10,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,529,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $387.99 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $242.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.55, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $365.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $354.28. 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 data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during 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%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group boosted 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

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.