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

Cove Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,168 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $411,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 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 valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $1.77 on Monday, hitting $352.33. 4,061,199 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,320,392. The stock has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $357.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $345.93. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year 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 - Get Free Report) 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,125 shares of company stock valued at $6,184,820 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus 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.