Haverford Financial Services Inc. Raises Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Haverford Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 34,975 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 3.8% of Haverford Financial Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Haverford Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,304,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Napatree Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 32.0% during the fourth quarter. Napatree Capital LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $419,000 after buying an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 592,510 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $208,449,000 after buying an additional 59,976 shares during the last quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 48.7% during the fourth quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,297 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $808,000 after buying an additional 752 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $83,904,000. Finally, Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 16,894 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,943,000 after purchasing an additional 3,383 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $305.17 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $359.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $357.24. The company has a market capitalization of $190.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 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 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.05.

Accenture Company 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.