Pure Financial Advisors LLC Sells 245 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Pure Financial Advisors LLC decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,686 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 245 shares during the quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $593,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during 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 buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $39,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $356.31 on Wednesday. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $357.49 and its 200 day moving average is $346.26. The company has a market capitalization of $222.98 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 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 dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,845 shares of company stock valued at $5,645,518 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

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.