Kesler Norman & Wride LLC Buys 239 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 21,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 1.6% of Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,406,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its stake in Accenture by 126.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,090,000 after purchasing an additional 22,391 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Accenture by 37.5% during the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the period. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC increased its position in Accenture by 127.1% during the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % 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, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $353.32 and a 200-day moving average of $355.55. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month 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 stock has a market capitalization of $196.35 billion, a PE ratio of 26.30, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

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.