Norris Perne & French LLP MI Invests $356,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Norris Perne & French LLP MI purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,012 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $356,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 607.1% in 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 purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, 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 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Up 1.7 %

ACN stock opened at $380.78 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $358.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $349.20. The stock has a market cap of $238.29 billion, a PE ratio of 31.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

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. 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 analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.