167 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Bought by Modus Advisors LLC

Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $59,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in Accenture by 1.3% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 182,272 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $55,303,000 after purchasing an additional 2,346 shares during the period. Jensen Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,442,792 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $741,168,000 after acquiring an additional 26,629 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in Accenture by 3.8% in the second quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 30,085 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,091 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the second quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $992,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the period. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 33,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,277,000 after purchasing an additional 4,881 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas cut 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. Finally, Guggenheim raised 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $353.85 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $221.44 billion, a PE ratio of 30.96, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $357.73 and its two-hundred 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given 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 1.67%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture Company 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.