RMR Wealth Builders Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

RMR Wealth Builders raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,437 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 203 shares during the period. RMR Wealth Builders’ holdings in Accenture were worth $1,913,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 400.2% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 19,863 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,023,000 after purchasing an additional 15,892 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 489,781 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $148,605,000 after buying an additional 24,630 shares in the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its holdings in Accenture by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 109,782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $33,309,000 after acquiring an additional 6,313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 331,984 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $100,727,000 after acquiring an additional 3,108 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Barclays upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $7.80 during trading on Friday, reaching $349.93. 2,309,762 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,625,025. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $218.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $343.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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 net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company 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 firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.