GSB Wealth Management LLC Reduces Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

GSB Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,517 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 121 shares during the period. GSB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,941,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment 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.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $362.65 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.42, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $357.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $347.30.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.