FSA Wealth Management LLC Invests $57,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 161 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $57,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $362.37 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.70, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $358.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $331.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

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.