Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC Acquires 5,562 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 367.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,075 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,562 shares during the period. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,489,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 15,845 shares of company stock worth $5,645,518. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $356.31 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The business has a fifty day moving average of $357.49 and a 200 day moving average of $346.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Accenture

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.