Brighton Jones LLC Purchases 4,905 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 36.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,115,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Apeiron RIA LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC now owns 1,109 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Veracity Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 2,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $799,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the period. Red Door Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $402,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Planning Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Planning Advisors LLC now owns 11,187 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,935,000 after buying an additional 1,472 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 17,332 shares of company stock valued at $6,172,719. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $362.76 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $357.18 and its 200-day moving average is $346.75. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

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.