Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 452 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.42, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $357.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $347.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

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.