1,823 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Purchased by Retireful LLC

Retireful LLC bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,823 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $641,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth $1,524,000. Sienna Gestion boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sienna Gestion now owns 54,528 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $16,537,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the period. AllGen Financial Advisors Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 20.6% in the 2nd quarter. AllGen Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 9,520 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,888,000 after acquiring an additional 1,629 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $1,999,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.8% in the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 41,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,652,000 after purchasing an additional 5,045 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Accenture stock opened at $350.92 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $219.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.44, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. 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 plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $344.97.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its 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 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

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.