GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires 906 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 21,213 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 906 shares during the quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,463,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of 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. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $397.92 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $249.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.38, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $361.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $351.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.