RMR Wealth Builders Acquires 203 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

RMR Wealth Builders increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,437 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 203 shares during the quarter. RMR Wealth Builders’ holdings in Accenture were worth $1,913,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,524,000. Wealth Alliance lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 10.4% in the second quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 5,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,641,000 after buying an additional 511 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 32.7% during the second quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,256 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,112,000 after buying an additional 2,526 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 59.0% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 312,741 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $94,889,000 after acquiring an additional 116,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Argent Trust Co lifted its position in Accenture by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 15,644 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,747,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $349.45 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $357.98 and a 200-day moving average of $344.94. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

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.