Motive Wealth Advisors Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Motive Wealth Advisors purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,413 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in Accenture by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 248,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,368,000 after buying an additional 23,537 shares during the period. EDENTREE ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd lifted its holdings in Accenture by 30.2% in the 2nd quarter. EDENTREE ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 18,099 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,492,000 after buying an additional 4,196 shares in the last quarter. Dundas Partners LLP boosted its position in Accenture by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dundas Partners LLP now owns 126,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,411,000 after buying an additional 3,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Decatur Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the second quarter. Decatur Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,974,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $357.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $346.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $227.01 billion, a PE ratio of 30.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s 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 directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.