Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Lessened by Stratos Investment Management LLC

Stratos Investment Management LLC lessened its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,817 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 106 shares during the period. Stratos Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $991,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE ACN opened at $391.98 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $360.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $350.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $392.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $245.30 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. 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.