Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Willis Investment Counsel’s 8th Largest Position

Willis Investment Counsel boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 115,661 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 648 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 2.7% of Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Willis Investment Counsel’s holdings in Accenture were worth $40,688,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture 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 in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,126,833.33. This trade represents a 11.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $384.88 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $359.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $350.06. The company has a market capitalization of $240.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. 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 research 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 for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

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.