Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,291 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,899 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. 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. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $357.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $344.94. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently 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.