Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,631 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,271 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,887,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 51,835 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,727,000 after acquiring an additional 2,695 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 141,090 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $42,808,000 after purchasing an additional 9,351 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 15.1% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,493 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 589 shares during the period. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 49.8% in the second quarter. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. now owns 7,250 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,200,000 after buying an additional 2,410 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 4.2% during the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,517 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,977,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $352.33 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $345.93.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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 issued 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 dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,452 shares of company stock valued at $5,934,343 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock 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.