Synergy Financial Group LTD Purchases 219 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Synergy Financial Group LTD increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 29.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 964 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 219 shares during the quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD’s holdings in Accenture were worth $341,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $372.09.

Accenture Trading Down 0.8 %

ACN stock opened at $359.65 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $224.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $360.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $333.42. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % 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 the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.