Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Smith Salley Wealth Management

Smith Salley Wealth Management grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 53,562 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,204 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 1.2% of Smith Salley Wealth Management’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Smith Salley Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $18,843,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were 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 directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Accenture stock opened at $352.33 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $345.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business 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 $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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

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.