Forza Wealth Management LLC Has $1.18 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Forza Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 50.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,343 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,128 shares during the quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,176,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after buying an additional 471,792 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after buying an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after buying an additional 80,514 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after buying an additional 56,937 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America upped their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim upped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ACN traded up $0.56 on Monday, reaching $350.35. 1,087,400 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,483,264. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $344.30. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $219.24 billion, a PE ratio of 30.65, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.