Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC Buys 56 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 745 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $262,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its position 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 worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. 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. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Accenture Trading Down 2.1 %

ACN traded down $7.57 during trading on Friday, hitting $350.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,284,475 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,455,690. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $343.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

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

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.