First Horizon Advisors Inc. Buys 1,432 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

10 Jan 2024, 16:58 by Amy Steele · The Cerbat Gem

First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,432 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,892,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. RVW Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Tyler Stone Wealth Management bought a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 70.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.48, for a total value of $1,567,020.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,265 shares in the company, valued at $6,048,697.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, Director Paula A. Price sold 551 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.36, for a total transaction of $190,293.36. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,583 shares in the company, valued at $2,273,504.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.48, for a total transaction of $1,567,020.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 20,265 shares in the company, valued at $6,048,697.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 39,885 shares of company stock worth $12,188,860. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $1.28 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $344.03. 129,163 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,891,429. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $334.59 and a 200-day moving average of $319.70. Accenture plc has a one year low of $242.80 and a one year high of $355.38. The firm has a market cap of $215.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.77, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.13. Accenture had a return on equity of 29.08% and a net margin of 10.65%. The firm had revenue of $16.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.08 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 28th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 18th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 17th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $312.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 29th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 14th. Piper Sandler Companies cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $314.00 to $312.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 12th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $358.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, September 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $348.59.

View Our Latest Research Report on ACN

Accenture Profile

(Free Report)

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.