Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 25,959 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 42 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 1.0% of Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,132,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Barclays raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $352.33 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $357.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $345.65.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % 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 the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,125 shares of company stock worth $6,184,820 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.