Diversify Advisory Services LLC Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Diversify Advisory Services LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 14.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,592 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,297 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,656,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $385.04.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

ACN stock traded up $1.77 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $352.33. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,061,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,320,392. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $345.93. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict 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 issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,125 shares of company stock worth $6,184,820 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.