Motive Wealth Advisors Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Motive Wealth Advisors purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the second quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in Accenture by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 248,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,368,000 after purchasing an additional 23,537 shares during the period. EDENTREE ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd increased its stake in Accenture by 30.2% in the second quarter. EDENTREE ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 18,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,492,000 after purchasing an additional 4,196 shares during the period. Dundas Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.4% in the second quarter. Dundas Partners LLP now owns 126,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,411,000 after buying an additional 3,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Decatur Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the second quarter. Decatur Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,974,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $362.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $357.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.75. The firm has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.17 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.