West Coast Financial LLC Has $12.32 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

West Coast Financial LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,029 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 417 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 1.4% of West Coast Financial LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. West Coast Financial LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,323,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners increased its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of ACN opened at $350.00 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $219.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260. 0.02% of the stock is owned by 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.