Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Increased by Procyon Advisors LLC

Procyon Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,735 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 604 shares during the quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,128,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $350.92 on Friday. 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 twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day moving average is $357.85 and its 200-day moving average is $344.97. The stock has a market cap of $219.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

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.