Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC Invests $336,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 956 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after acquiring an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 34.1% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $103,361,000 after acquiring an additional 74,438 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $372.99 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $233.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $357.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $348.01. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

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.