Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Arlington Partners LLC

Arlington Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,715 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 410 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.7% of Arlington Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Arlington Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,473,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $386.04 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $241.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.39, a PEG ratio of 3.44 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. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $362.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $352.18.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.