Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Position Raised by Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,291 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,899 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,676,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $51,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $357.98 and its 200 day moving average is $344.94. 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 $217.99 billion, a PE ratio of 30.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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 of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

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.