Greenwood Capital Associates LLC Makes New Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Greenwood Capital Associates LLC bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 13,708 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,822,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $385.45 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business’s 50 day moving average is $359.56 and its 200-day moving average is $350.23. The stock has a market cap of $241.21 billion, a PE ratio of 32.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.