HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Buys 1,151 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,268 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares during the quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 1.4 %

ACN opened at $304.32 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $354.96 and a 200-day moving average of $356.07. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $190.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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.