Kathmere Capital Management LLC Has $1.98 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 54.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,627 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,984 shares during the quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,980,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $349.45. 2,615,878 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,611,574. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $357.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $344.94. The firm has a market cap of $218.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.