1,054 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Purchased by Golden State Wealth Management LLC

Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,054 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $371,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 2,236 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $790,000 after buying an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its position in shares of Accenture by 31.3% in the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,389 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $421,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Albion Financial Group UT lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 48,946 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,302,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its position in Accenture by 641.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 17,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,242,000 after buying an additional 15,278 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $386.04 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $361.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $351.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $241.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’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 sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.