Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Position Lifted by Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 126.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 22,391 shares during the quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,090,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hilltop National Bank grew its position in Accenture by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 1,283 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 103.0% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 871 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank lifted its position in Accenture by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 2,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $860,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares during the period. Fulton Bank N.A. increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 12,655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,452,000 after buying an additional 868 shares during the period. Finally, Range Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $612,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $6.68 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $351.05. 784,526 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,372,025. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.68 billion, a PE ratio of 30.71, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $343.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.