Capital Planning Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Planning Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,187 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,472 shares during the period. Capital Planning Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,935,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $251,607,000 after purchasing an additional 689,366 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after buying an additional 509,011 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, 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 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. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. 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 report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted 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. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $359.08 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The business’s fifty day moving average is $357.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.75. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture 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.