Howland Capital Management LLC Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Howland Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 18.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,417 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 543 shares during the quarter. Howland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,202,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% in the third quarter. Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 13.6% during the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,089 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,859,000 after acquiring an additional 969 shares in the last quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.8% during the third quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 2,255 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $797,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Asio Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the third quarter. Asio Capital LLC now owns 10,790 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,814,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $219,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley increased 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. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $386.04 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $241.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.39, a P/E/G 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $362.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $352.03.

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. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.