Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. Has $24.48 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 69,587 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 869 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 2.8% of Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,125 shares of company stock valued at $6,184,820 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $1.77 during trading on Monday, reaching $352.33. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,061,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,320,392. 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 business's fifty day moving average price is $357.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $345.93. The firm has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Susquehanna increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight research 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 an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.04.

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.