New Century Financial Group LLC Has $626,000 Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New Century Financial Group LLC lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 18.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,769 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 405 shares during the quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $626,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after acquiring an additional 14,724 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC raised its position in Accenture by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $103,361,000 after buying an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Radnor Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 21.6% in the third quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC now owns 22,131 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,823,000 after purchasing an additional 3,930 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment 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 an average target price of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $357.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.75. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 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 announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 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.