Sonora Investment Management Group LLC Increases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sonora Investment Management Group LLC increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 38,116 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 987 shares during the period. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,409,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Advisory Alpha LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 25.4% during the 2nd quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 968 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $294,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at $675,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 38.0% in the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 379,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $115,011,000 after buying an additional 104,325 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 1.1% during the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 5,661 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,718,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Mattson Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,043,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.7 %

ACN opened at $380.78 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $238.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.94, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $358.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $349.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group reduced 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. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture 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.