Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Haverford Financial Services Inc.’s 10th Largest Position

Haverford Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,975 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 3.8% of Haverford Financial Services Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Haverford Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA boosted its holdings in Accenture by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 126.8% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,090,000 after acquiring an additional 22,391 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 37.5% during the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the period. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 127.1% during the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $305.17 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $190.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $359.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $357.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % 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 ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.05.

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.