Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC

SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 54.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,499 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $879,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % 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, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % 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 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

Accenture stock traded up $2.64 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $350.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,054,004 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,454,060. 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 plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average of $357.98 and a 200 day moving average of $344.94. The stock has a market cap of $219.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.43, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture 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.