Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC Makes New $34,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 98 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $34,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $352.33 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $357.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $345.02. The company has a market cap of $220.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

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.