Ritholtz Wealth Management Purchases 899 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,097 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 899 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,145,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $51,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of ACN opened at $352.33 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 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. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $357.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $345.36.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company 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.