Heritage Family Offices LLP Boosts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Heritage Family Offices LLP grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.1% of Heritage Family Offices LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Heritage Family Offices LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,107,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at $1,524,000. Wealth Alliance raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 5,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,641,000 after purchasing an additional 511 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 32.7% during the second quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,256 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,112,000 after purchasing an additional 2,526 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in Accenture by 59.0% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 312,741 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $94,889,000 after buying an additional 116,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Argent Trust Co boosted its position in Accenture by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 15,644 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,747,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. 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 research note on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded 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. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $349.45 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $218.68 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $357.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $344.94. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during 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 company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often 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.