KCM Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 174 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

KCM Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,551 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. KCM Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,340,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,065,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $285.04 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.91, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $349.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $354.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wolfe Research raised 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. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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.