Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC Has $1.23 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 26.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,482 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,263 shares during the period. Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted 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 period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $4.43 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $283.66. 698,196 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,996,490. The company has a fifty day moving average of $324.03 and a 200-day moving average of $349.02. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $275.01 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $177.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 2.09%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business'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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 22,291 shares of company stock valued at $7,880,886 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on ACN. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

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.