Greenwood Gearhart Inc. Buys 3,071 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Greenwood Gearhart Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,071 shares during the quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,170,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $666,495,000. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $302,751,000 after buying an additional 858,944 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,778 shares of company stock worth $8,408,087. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $2.96 on Friday, reaching $282.28. The stock had a trading volume of 2,320,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,007,591. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two 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 company has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $326.22 and a 200-day moving average of $349.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 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 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.