Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by BNC Wealth Management LLC

BNC Wealth Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,326 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 99 shares during the quarter. BNC Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $818,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 911 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $320,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 23.8% in the 4th quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,258 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $443,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the period. Smith Salley Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Smith Salley Wealth Management now owns 53,562 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $18,843,000 after buying an additional 1,204 shares during the period. Financial Management Professionals Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,218 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $428,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, Raub Brock Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Raub Brock Capital Management LP now owns 52,294 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $18,397,000 after buying an additional 598 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $352.33 on Friday. 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 one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $345.36. The stock has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America raised their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research 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 an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was 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. This represents a 6.79 % 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 Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders 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 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.