Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC

Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,115,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $357.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders 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 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. 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. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

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.