Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 76.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,057 shares during the period. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 11,735 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,128,000 after purchasing an additional 604 shares in the last quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,251 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $440,000 after buying an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd raised its holdings in Accenture by 25.7% in the fourth quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 157,719 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $55,447,000 after acquiring an additional 32,264 shares in the last quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 18,478 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,500,000 after acquiring an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 234.0% in the 4th quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC now owns 44,524 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,663,000 after purchasing an additional 31,195 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of ACN traded up $2.90 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $353.46. 567,968 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,369,508. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $357.85 and its 200-day moving average is $344.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $221.19 billion, a PE ratio of 29.64, a PEG ratio of 3.11 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on ACN. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

Accenture 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.