Blossom Wealth Management Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Blossom Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 943 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the quarter. Blossom Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $332,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd 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 raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third 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 increased its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued 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 $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $384.88 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $240.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $359.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $349.88. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.