AdvisorNet Financial Inc Sells 307 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

AdvisorNet Financial Inc trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 307 shares during the quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $633,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake 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 during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $51,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $349.45 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

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.