U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,318 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,230 shares during the quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,278,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE ACN opened at $384.88 on Monday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $240.86 billion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $359.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $350.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

About Accenture

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.