Catalyst Financial Partners LLC Has $936,000 Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Catalyst Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $936,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $87,566,000 after purchasing an additional 12,993 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the last quarter. Carderock Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 4.0% in the third quarter. Carderock Capital Management Inc. now owns 21,819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,713,000 after buying an additional 834 shares in the last quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO now owns 8,868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,135,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.2% during the third quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 18,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,547,000 after buying an additional 572 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $389.71 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $243.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $364.15 and a 200-day moving average of $353.43. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

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.