Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 37.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,616 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,632 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 0.7% of Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,383,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company'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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.46 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $349.45. The company had a trading volume of 2,615,878 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,611,574. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $218.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $357.98 and a 200-day moving average of $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.69%. Accenture's payout ratio is 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.04.

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.