Valley Wealth Managers Inc. Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Valley Wealth Managers Inc. grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 57,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 571 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 1.5% of Valley Wealth Managers Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Valley Wealth Managers Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $20,431,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,275 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,215,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC now owns 4,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,597,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. 1ST Source Bank boosted its position in Accenture by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 1,314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A. boosted its position in Accenture by 114.2% during the 1st quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 7,327 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,540,000 after purchasing an additional 3,907 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $19,007,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup upped their price target 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. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded down $5.29 during trading on Friday, reaching $356.78. 551,244 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,714,915. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $355.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $326.73. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.04 billion, a PE ratio of 31.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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.