Insight Wealth Strategies LLC Raises Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Insight Wealth Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,598 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the period. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,728,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 16.8% during the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 33,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,277,000 after buying an additional 4,881 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 34,483 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,463,000 after purchasing an additional 2,092 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 9.8% in the 2nd quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,496 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $757,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Umpqua Bank raised its position in Accenture by 1.6% in the second quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 3,816 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,158,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $28,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $3.57 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $350.28. The stock had a trading volume of 811,349 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,687,557. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $342.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.65, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board 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.