Capital Advisors Wealth Management LLC Decreases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Advisors Wealth Management LLC reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 21.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 627 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 175 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Retireful LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $641,000. JGP Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,848 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,002,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,097 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,145,000 after acquiring an additional 899 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 91,487 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $32,184,000 after acquiring an additional 3,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its position in Accenture by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 119,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,948,000 after purchasing an additional 7,207 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Susquehanna increased 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. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

ACN opened at $352.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $357.65 and its 200-day moving average is $345.02. 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 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.