Signal Advisors Wealth LLC Raises Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Signal Advisors Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,345 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the period. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $217.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $357.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $344.94.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company 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%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

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.