Catalyst Financial Partners LLC Acquires 221 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Catalyst Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $936,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.5% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $87,566,000 after acquiring an additional 12,993 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Carderock Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.0% in the third quarter. Carderock Capital Management Inc. now owns 21,819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,713,000 after purchasing an additional 834 shares in the last quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO now owns 8,868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,135,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC raised its position in Accenture by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 18,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,547,000 after buying an additional 572 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $389.71 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $243.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.69, 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. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $364.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $353.43.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price 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. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

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.