Pure Financial Advisors LLC Sells 245 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Pure Financial Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,686 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 245 shares during the period. Pure Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Cove Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $411,000. DLK Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. DLK Investment Management LLC now owns 9,727 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,422,000 after buying an additional 248 shares during the period. Stokes Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Stokes Capital Advisors LLC now owns 22,465 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,903,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Thrive Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Thrive Wealth Management LLC now owns 940 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $331,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Willner & Heller LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $220,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $356.31 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $222.98 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $346.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Insiders have sold 15,845 shares of company stock valued at $5,645,518 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by 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.