Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Apeiron RIA LLC

Apeiron RIA LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,109 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $390,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Veracity Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 2,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $799,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $402,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Capital Planning Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Planning Advisors LLC now owns 11,187 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,935,000 after purchasing an additional 1,472 shares in the last quarter. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $47,000. Finally, D.B. Root & Company LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 1,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $375,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. 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 $227.01 billion, a PE ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $357.18 and a 200 day moving average of $346.75.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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 value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. Corporate 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.