Apella Capital LLC Has $3.37 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Apella Capital LLC raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,568 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Apella Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,366,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE ACN opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $357.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $344.94. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during 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%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, 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 value 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 represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

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.