Howard Capital Management Group LLC Purchases 648 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 111,819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 648 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 2.7% of Howard Capital Management Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Howard Capital Management Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $39,337,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares during the period. M&G PLC grew its position in Accenture by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,845 shares of company stock worth $5,645,518 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $356.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $222.98 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $346.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Company 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.