Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Decreased by Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC

Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,015 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 5,880 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 3.9% of Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,595,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in 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. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of ACN traded up $8.41 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $359.74. 1,942,030 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,135,705. The company’s 50 day moving average is $357.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $342.94. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $225.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors 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 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Company 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.