Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Wallace Advisory Group LLC

Wallace Advisory Group LLC cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,543 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 460 shares during the period. Wallace Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $899,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $349.14 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $344.63. The stock has a market cap of $218.49 billion, a PE ratio of 30.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $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 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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 given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. UBS Group raised their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Mizuho raised their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

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.