Crowley Wealth Management Inc. Invests $131,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 373 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $131,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in 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 buying an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. grew its stake in Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 126.8% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,090,000 after buying an additional 22,391 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 37.5% during the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 127.1% in the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.05.

Accenture Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $305.17 on Friday. 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 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $359.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $357.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.