HCR Wealth Advisors Cuts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

HCR Wealth Advisors reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 20.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 195 shares during the quarter. HCR Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $265,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $51,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $350.92 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $357.85 and a 200 day moving average of $344.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.60 billion, a PE ratio of 29.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program 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 programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture 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.