Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC Has $772,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,193 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $772,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the second quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 71.2% during the 2nd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,083 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $632,000 after acquiring an additional 866 shares during the period. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $233,000. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc raised its position in Accenture by 1.7% in the second quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 3,426 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,040,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 74.8% during the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 2,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $357.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $347.30. The stock has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture 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.