Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. Buys 572 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,623 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 572 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 2.2% of Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,551,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 2,236 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $790,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its position in Accenture by 31.3% during the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,389 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,047 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $421,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Albion Financial Group UT grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 48,946 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,302,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its stake in Accenture by 641.4% in the third quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 17,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,242,000 after purchasing an additional 15,278 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $386.04 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $241.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.39, 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 $398.35. 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 50 day moving average of $361.83 and a 200 day moving average of $351.65.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.