584 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Acquired by Independent Wealth Network Inc.

Independent Wealth Network Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 584 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners grew its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $357.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

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

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. 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 presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Accenture Company 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.