Encompass More Asset Management Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Encompass More Asset Management boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 26.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 958 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the period. Encompass More Asset Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $337,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $362.65 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $357.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $346.86. The stock has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 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 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture Company 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.