Kiker Wealth Management LLC Buys New Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kiker Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 2,266 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $797,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Ballast Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 5,183 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,823,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 269,782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $94,907,000 after buying an additional 7,506 shares during the last quarter. Viawealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,274 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $448,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 20,419 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $7,183,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $2,315,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $1.79 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $308.97. 3,889,341 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,771,908. The stock has a market cap of $193.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $358.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $357.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Remove Ads

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.91.

About Accenture

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.