Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by MWA Asset Management

MWA Asset Management lessened its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,923 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 143 shares during the quarter. MWA Asset Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,028,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Marcum Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 2,236 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $790,000 after buying an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 31.3% in the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,389 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,047 shares in the last quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $421,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Albion Financial Group UT increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 48,946 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,302,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 641.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 17,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,242,000 after buying an additional 15,278 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Eight research 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 stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $386.04 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $361.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $351.65. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $241.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during 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 business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

About Accenture

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.