KFG Wealth Management LLC Raises Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

KFG Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,584 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 104 shares during the quarter. KFG Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $557,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Archford Capital Strategies LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 5,877 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,067,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas now owns 113,237 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $39,835,000 after buying an additional 4,918 shares during the period. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 23.0% during the fourth quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 4,107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,445,000 after purchasing an additional 767 shares during the period. Running Oak Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC now owns 38,774 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,640,000 after purchasing an additional 2,680 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $420,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $362.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $347.30. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

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.