Harvey Investment Co. LLC Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Harvey Investment Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 54.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,205 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the quarter. Harvey Investment Co. LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $424,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA raised its holdings in Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 78.6% during the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after acquiring an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 2.9 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $386.71 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $361.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $351.65. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $242.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.