Quent Capital LLC Buys 101 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,900 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,020,000 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 ACN. CX Institutional raised its holdings in Accenture by 432.8% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 18,840 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,660,000 after buying an additional 15,304 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its position in Accenture by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $87,566,000 after acquiring an additional 12,993 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Birch Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.2% in the third quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 18,226 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,443,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Accenture by 16.6% in the third 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. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $390.21 on Wednesday. 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 $244.19 billion, a PE ratio of 32.74, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $362.81 and a 200-day moving average of $352.74.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by 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.