Spartan Planning & Wealth Management Takes $419,000 Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Spartan Planning & Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,190 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $419,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 71.1% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 18,153 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,386,000 after buying an additional 7,546 shares during the period. Canandaigua National Trust Co of Florida lifted its holdings in Accenture by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Canandaigua National Trust Co of Florida now owns 627 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $221,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 10,598 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,728,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 725 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $255,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Boltwood Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $272,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup increased 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. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $6.37 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $357.70. The company had a trading volume of 2,136,397 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,186,320. 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 $223.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.29, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $357.39 and a 200-day moving average of $342.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) 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. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. 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 Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.