Range Financial Group LLC Takes $612,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Range Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,740 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $612,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 33,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,277,000 after purchasing an additional 4,881 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Gallacher Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 18.5% during the second quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC now owns 892 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $271,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 400.2% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 19,863 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,023,000 after acquiring an additional 15,892 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Certuity LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 6.5% in the second quarter. Certuity LLC now owns 1,325 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $5.37 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $356.70. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,083,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,640,192. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $342.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.