Axiom Financial Strategies LLC Buys 37 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Axiom Financial Strategies LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 0.2% of Axiom Financial Strategies LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $305,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $375.86 on Tuesday. 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $348.01. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $235.21 billion, a PE ratio of 31.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 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 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.