Marion Wealth Management Purchases 421 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Marion Wealth Management boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,011 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 421 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.1% of Marion Wealth Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Marion Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 36,096 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,698,000 after buying an additional 1,491 shares during the period. Sunflower Bank N.A. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 1,508 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $530,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,041,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Bar Harbor Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Bar Harbor Wealth Management now owns 14,720 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,178,000 after purchasing an additional 550 shares during the period. Finally, Consilio Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $204,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $0.65 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $349.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,711,122 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,694,241. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $357.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $344.30. The company has a market cap of $218.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.55, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share repurchase 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. BNP Paribas lowered 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

About Accenture

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.