SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. Has $3.35 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,523 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 150 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 1.2% of SS&H Financial Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. SS&H Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,351,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd 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 during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $217.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $357.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $344.94.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective 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. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

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.