Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC Has $104.83 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 297,999 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,524 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.5% of Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $104,833,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after acquiring an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 70.6% during the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,581,000 after buying an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 34.1% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $103,361,000 after buying an additional 74,438 shares during the period. Finally, Radnor Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC now owns 22,131 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,823,000 after acquiring an additional 3,930 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of 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 note on Friday, December 6th. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

ACN opened at $359.08 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $224.71 billion, a PE ratio of 30.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $346.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.