Allen Capital Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Allen Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 146.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,105 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,251 shares during the quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $741,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in Accenture by 2.5% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 92,083 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $27,938,000 after purchasing an additional 2,211 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its stake in Accenture by 340.5% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 652 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $198,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 31.8% during the second quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 15,246 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,626,000 after purchasing an additional 3,676 shares during the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth about $303,000. Finally, Greenvale Capital LLP bought a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $75,852,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $4.13 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $384.88. 3,102,981 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,502,575. The stock has a market capitalization of $240.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $359.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $349.88. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. Accenture's payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm's 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $387.22.

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.