Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC Takes $320,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 904 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $320,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in 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 valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after purchasing 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 during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $362.98 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $226.92 billion, a PE ratio of 31.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $360.26 and a 200-day moving average of $333.42. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one 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 for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, 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 report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $372.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last three months. 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.