Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Wendell David Associates Inc.

Wendell David Associates Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 28,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 675 shares during the period. Wendell David Associates Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,131,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Traynor Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. now owns 713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $251,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Independent Wealth Network Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $205,000. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 297,999 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $104,833,000 after purchasing an additional 4,524 shares during the last quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC now owns 3,404 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,191,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisory Alpha LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 1,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after buying an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $359.08 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $357.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.66. 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 capitalization of $224.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.12, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.