Valmark Advisers Inc. Increases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 17,871 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,301 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,287,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $1,109,000. Lee Financial Co purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $345,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 13,733 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,932,000 after purchasing an additional 1,910 shares in the last quarter. Amarillo National Bank purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $222,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 24.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 16,300 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,734,000 after acquiring an additional 3,160 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $387.99 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $365.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $354.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $242.80 billion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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. 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 quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. BNP Paribas cut shares of 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.