Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC Purchases 827 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 86.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,788 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the period. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. MCF Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $318,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 367.6% during the 4th quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,075 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,489,000 after purchasing an additional 5,562 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 111,819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $39,337,000 after purchasing an additional 648 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 124,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $43,669,000 after buying an additional 11,482 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 103,276 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,331,000 after buying an additional 1,601 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

ACN opened at $359.08 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $346.66. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $224.71 billion, a PE ratio of 30.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for 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%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.