M3 Advisory Group LLC Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

M3 Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 753 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the quarter. M3 Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $265,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $362.65 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $357.37 and its 200 day moving average is $347.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

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 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 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.