By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Sunflower Bank N.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,508 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the period. Sunflower Bank N.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $530,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in 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 period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Accenture Stock Performance
Accenture stock traded down $0.65 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $349.14. The stock had a trading volume of 2,508,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,694,241. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.49 billion, a PE ratio of 30.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $344.30. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.
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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.
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