Verity & Verity LLC Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Verity & Verity LLC lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 62.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,791 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 3,388 shares during the quarter. Verity & Verity LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $3,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,524,000. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at $1,999,000. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 13.8% in the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 41,701 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $12,652,000 after purchasing an additional 5,045 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,957 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $5,752,000 after buying an additional 840 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clifford Group LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Clifford Group LLC now owns 2,286 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $694,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

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

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $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 dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture 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 owns 20,324 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.04.

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.