MGB Wealth Management LLC Raises Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

MGB Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 27.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,053 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. MGB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $371,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $87,566,000 after buying an additional 12,993 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Brady Family Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the third quarter. Brady Family Wealth LLC now owns 24,592 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,693,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC now owns 654 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $231,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $388.85 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $363.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $353.18. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $243.34 billion, a PE ratio of 32.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

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.