Marcum Wealth LLC Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Marcum Wealth LLC increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $798,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position 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 worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Mizuho boosted their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted 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. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $349.14 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $357.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $344.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.55, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm 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 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.