Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC

SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 54.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,499 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $879,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth about $1,524,000. Wealth Alliance grew its stake in Accenture by 10.4% in the second quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 5,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,641,000 after purchasing an additional 511 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Accenture by 32.7% in the second quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,256 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,112,000 after purchasing an additional 2,526 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in Accenture by 59.0% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 312,741 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $94,889,000 after purchasing an additional 116,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Argent Trust Co grew its stake in Accenture by 4.1% in the second quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 15,644 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,747,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $349.45 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.68 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

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.