Traynor Capital Management Inc. Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Traynor Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 23.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the period. Traynor Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $251,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Independent Wealth Network Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $205,000. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 297,999 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $104,833,000 after acquiring an additional 4,524 shares during the period. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC now owns 3,404 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,191,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 1,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, West Branch Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 56.7% in the fourth quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 3,464 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,219,000 after purchasing an additional 1,254 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Accenture Trading Up 1.0 %

ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $357.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $346.75.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 17,332 shares of company stock worth $6,172,719. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.