Legacy Bridge LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Legacy Bridge LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 79.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,485 shares during the period. Legacy Bridge LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,181,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight equities research 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 an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,126,833.33. The trade was a 11.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 16,446 shares of company stock worth $5,852,848. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $372.99 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $233.41 billion, a PE ratio of 31.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $348.01. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year 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 for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company 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 business’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 company posted $3.27 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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.