Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Portside Wealth Group LLC

Portside Wealth Group LLC lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,594 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 175 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 1.0% of Portside Wealth Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,866,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $352.33 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $345.36.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors 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 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.