Independent Wealth Network Inc. Makes New Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Independent Wealth Network Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 584 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in Accenture by 10.5% in the second quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 248,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $75,368,000 after purchasing an additional 23,537 shares in the last quarter. EDENTREE ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd increased its position in Accenture by 30.2% in the 2nd quarter. EDENTREE ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 18,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,492,000 after purchasing an additional 4,196 shares during the last quarter. Dundas Partners LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dundas Partners LLP now owns 126,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,411,000 after buying an additional 3,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Decatur Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Decatur Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,974,000 after buying an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $357.18 and its 200-day moving average is $346.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $227.01 billion, a PE ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

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.