Elevated Capital Advisors LLC Has $1.04 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Elevated Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,959 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,041,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 12.0% during the second quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 4,899 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,486,000 after buying an additional 524 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 139.7% during the second quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 8,630 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,619,000 after purchasing an additional 5,029 shares during the period. Diversify Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,994,000. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the second quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 20,620 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,256,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rock Point Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 28,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,746,000 after buying an additional 4,357 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were 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 directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of ACN traded down $0.65 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $349.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,507,937 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,537,471. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $344.30. The stock has a market cap of $218.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.55, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight 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 company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.