Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Schear Investment Advisers LLC

Schear Investment Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,394,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group lifted their price objective 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. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $390.21 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $362.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $352.74. 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 has a market cap of $244.19 billion, a PE ratio of 32.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were 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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.