Ritholtz Wealth Management Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 17.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,097 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 899 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,145,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third 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 in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. 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 report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. 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.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $1.77 on Friday, reaching $352.33. The stock had a trading volume of 4,061,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,320,392. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $357.59 and a 200 day moving average of $345.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid 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 1.68%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.