General Partner Inc. Purchases 225 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

General Partner Inc. raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 29.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 997 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. General Partner Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $351,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE:ACN traded up $3.89 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $352.71. The company had a trading volume of 291,291 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,240,861. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $357.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.35. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $220.72 billion, a PE ratio of 30.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.23.

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.