Gradient Investments LLC Has $13.76 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Gradient Investments LLC cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 39,104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,085 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,756,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Curated Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $294,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in Accenture by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 558 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $196,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional raised its position in shares of Accenture by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 21,121 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,430,000 after buying an additional 2,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $357.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $346.86. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

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.