Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC Raises Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,356 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 66 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for 1.3% of Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,581,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,551 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $522,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Lockerman Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Lockerman Financial Group Inc. now owns 772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $271,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $389,000. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC now owns 866 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Ballast Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $326,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Citigroup cut their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $5.16 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $346.10. The stock had a trading volume of 3,614,374 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,302,960. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $369.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $340.38. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $217.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.