Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Raises Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 80,009 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 941 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 0.9% of Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $28,146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 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 purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.53 during trading on Monday, reaching $350.32. The stock had a trading volume of 908,171 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,459,064. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $357.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $344.30. The stock has a market cap of $219.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.65, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.