Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 745 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $262,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. 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 report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded down $7.57 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $350.16. 1,284,475 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,455,690. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $343.47. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $219.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 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.