Groesbeck Investment Management Corp NJ Makes New Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Groesbeck Investment Management Corp NJ purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 835 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $294,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 35,575 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,515,000 after acquiring an additional 257 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 56,222 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,779,000 after buying an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Avitas Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Avitas Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,985 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One North America Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 94.0% during the 4th quarter. Ninety One North America Inc. now owns 79,980 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,136,000 after buying an additional 38,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenwood Capital Associates LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,822,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.8 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $391.98 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $392.45. The stock has a market cap of $245.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $360.05 and a 200-day moving average of $350.64. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Company 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.