Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

by · The Markets Daily

Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,112 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,191 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 1.6% of Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,695,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $35,000. Tsfg LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 267.9% during the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

View Our Latest Research Report on Accenture

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,548 shares of company stock valued at $5,585,938 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $1.83 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $375.03. 366,585 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,727,714. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $345.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $321.59. The company has a market capitalization of $235.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Accenture

(Free Report)

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.

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