Cove Private Wealth LLC Buys Shares of 1,168 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cove Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,168 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $411,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 5.5% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 51,835 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,727,000 after buying an additional 2,695 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 212,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $64,331,000 after acquiring an additional 531 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC raised its position in Accenture by 6.9% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 13,052 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,960,000 after purchasing an additional 840 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 7.1% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 141,090 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $42,808,000 after purchasing an additional 9,351 shares during the period. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 16,888.5% in the 2nd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 10,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,144,000 after purchasing an additional 10,302 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $352.33 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $357.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $345.65. The stock has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 17,125 shares of company stock worth $6,184,820. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Company 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.