AFT Forsyth & Company Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

AFT Forsyth & Company Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the quarter. AFT Forsyth & Company Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $328,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning boosted its position in Accenture by 5.5% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $87,566,000 after buying an additional 12,993 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Brady Family Wealth LLC grew its position in Accenture by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Brady Family Wealth LLC now owns 24,592 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,693,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC now owns 654 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $231,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded 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. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, 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 report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $388.85 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $363.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $353.18. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $243.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.62, a PEG ratio of 3.44 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company 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%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.