Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC Purchases 205 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 12,374 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 205 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 1.4% of Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Wells Trecaso Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,353,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,193 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $772,000 after buying an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,115,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. Apeiron RIA LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC now owns 1,109 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, Veracity Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 2,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $799,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This trade represents a 14.91 % 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 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.76 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a PE ratio of 30.43, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $357.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $346.75.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. Bank of America raised their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

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.