Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Acquires 547 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,009 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 547 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,456,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in Accenture by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 127,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $45,104,000 after acquiring an additional 7,791 shares during the period. Everpar Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 26.8% during the third quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,122 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $397,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. Security National Bank increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.2% in the third quarter. Security National Bank now owns 17,188 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,076,000 after buying an additional 696 shares during the period. Greenfield Savings Bank bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $227,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Accenture by 18.7% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 654 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $231,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $391.98 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $360.63 and a 200 day moving average of $351.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $392.45. The firm has a market cap of $245.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

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, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 paid a $1.48 dividend. 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 1.51%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

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.