Berbice Capital Management LLC Acquires New Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 100 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $35,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Encompass More Asset Management raised its position in Accenture by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 958 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $337,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 251.2% during the fourth quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 2,265 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 1,620 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its position in Accenture by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 421 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. LexAurum Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. LexAurum Advisors LLC now owns 1,362 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $479,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,044 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,071,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $361.59 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. 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 company’s fifty day moving average is $357.18 and its 200-day moving average is $346.75. The company has a market capitalization of $226.28 billion, a PE ratio of 30.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

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.