Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 1,899 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 16.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,291 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,899 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $4,676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $349.45. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,615,878 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,611,574. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $357.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $344.94. The firm has a market cap 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" 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 stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.04.

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.