LGT Financial Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

LGT Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 695 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE ACN opened at $299.00 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $311.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $345.90. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $187.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.08, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong 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 $377.82.

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.