Running Oak Capital LLC Increases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Running Oak Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 38,774 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,680 shares during the period. Running Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,640,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 71.2% in the second quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $632,000 after purchasing an additional 866 shares during the last quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $233,000. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.7% during the second quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 3,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,040,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kathmere Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 74.8% in the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 2,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $788,000 after acquiring an additional 1,111 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. 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 has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $347.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded 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. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

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.