Miracle Mile Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,096 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,491 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,698,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% in the third 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 worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 251.3% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after buying an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $0.65 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $349.14. 2,508,029 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,694,241. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $357.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $344.30. The company has a market cap of $218.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.55, a P/E/G 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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. 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 research note on Friday, December 20th. Guggenheim increased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.