Buffington Mohr McNeal Has $633,000 Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Buffington Mohr McNeal raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Buffington Mohr McNeal’s holdings in Accenture were worth $633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 607.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’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 transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $372.99 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $233.41 billion, a PE ratio of 31.29, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $357.37 and a 200-day moving average of $348.01.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results 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. 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 analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

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.