NovaPoint Capital LLC Has $4.74 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

NovaPoint Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,466 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.4% of NovaPoint Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. NovaPoint Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 95.2% during the 4th quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,529 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,945,000 after buying an additional 2,696 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 24,494 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,622,000 after purchasing an additional 3,451 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 4,009 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,456,000 after purchasing an additional 547 shares during the last quarter. Country Club Bank increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 3,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,329,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 38.7% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 56,678 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,156,000 after purchasing an additional 15,821 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 1.6 %

Accenture stock opened at $397.92 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $249.01 billion, a PE ratio of 33.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $360.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $351.08. 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.