Elser Financial Planning Inc Invests $274,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Elser Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 780 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $274,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 29.2% in the fourth quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,551 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,953,000 after buying an additional 1,255 shares in the last quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 284.7% in the fourth quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,435 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $505,000 after buying an additional 1,062 shares in the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,103,000 after buying an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Liberty Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Liberty Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,801 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,337,000 after buying an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $386.04 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $241.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. 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 50-day moving average is $362.30 and its 200-day moving average is $352.18. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities 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 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’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 value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. 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. Piper Sandler lifted 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.