Novem Group Invests $440,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Novem Group purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 1,251 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $440,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its position in Accenture by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its position in 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 worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Mizuho cut their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven equities 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $0.26 on Wednesday, reaching $315.69. 1,268,762 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,993,717. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $197.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. 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 50-day moving average is $302.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $339.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Accenture 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.