Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Versant Capital Management Inc

Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 82.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 538 shares during the quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $419,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas cut 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. Bank of America upped their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. 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. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 28th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $348.82 on Friday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $218.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $357.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.