FSM Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

FSM Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,472 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the quarter. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $867,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp raised its position in Accenture by 1.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Accenture by 378.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 1.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its position in Accenture by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in Accenture by 1.5% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,892,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $668,974,000 after acquiring an additional 28,491 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $384.88 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $359.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $350.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $240.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given 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 1.54%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total value of $902,725.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 19,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,126,833.33. The trade was a 11.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 13,255 shares of company stock worth $4,756,101 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

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.