Boltwood Capital Management Makes New Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Boltwood Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $272,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 19,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,711,000 after acquiring an additional 1,798 shares during the period. General Partner Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. General Partner Inc. now owns 997 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $351,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 11,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,965,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 82.3% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $419,000 after acquiring an additional 538 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.43 on Monday, hitting $353.42. 341,300 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,532,000. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a fifty day moving average of $357.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $342.62. The company has a market capitalization of $221.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup boosted their price objective 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. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.23.

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.