682 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Acquired by Genesis Private Wealth LLC

Genesis Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 682 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Evergreen Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.2% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,517 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,977,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Resources Management Corp CT ADV boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. Resources Management Corp CT ADV now owns 50,111 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,204,000 after purchasing an additional 608 shares in the last quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 3.3% in the second quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,944 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,500,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in Accenture by 18.7% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the second quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,845 shares of company stock valued at $5,645,518 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $356.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $222.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company’s 50-day moving average is $357.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.26. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company 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 posted $3.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

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 paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in 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 programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.