Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC Has $2.40 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,816 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 482 shares during the period. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,398,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA increased its position in Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 78.6% during the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 70.6% in the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after buying an additional 14,724 shares during the period. Finally, M&G PLC grew its position in Accenture by 34.1% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after buying an additional 74,438 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $388.85 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $363.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $353.18. The company has a market cap of $243.34 billion, a PE ratio of 32.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Accenture Company 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.