Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC

Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 367.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,075 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,562 shares during the quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,489,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,517 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,977,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Resources Management Corp CT ADV grew its position in Accenture by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Resources Management Corp CT ADV now owns 50,111 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,204,000 after buying an additional 608 shares during the last quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,944 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,500,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.7% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after acquiring an additional 27,168 shares during the period. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. 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 MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $356.31 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $357.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $222.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

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, 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 business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous 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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 15,845 shares of company stock valued at $5,645,518. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.