Marks Group Wealth Management Inc Decreases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Marks Group Wealth Management Inc decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 25,450 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 113 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 1.0% of Marks Group Wealth Management Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,931,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $531,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 3.1% in the third quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,278 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,007,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC IL raised its stake in Accenture by 26.1% during the third quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC IL now owns 986 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $303,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. McBroom & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. McBroom & Associates LLC now owns 17,671 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,427,000 after buying an additional 973 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ziegler Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 42.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ziegler Capital Management LLC now owns 41,383 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,709,000 after acquiring an additional 12,302 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, 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 value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $0.71 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $317.59. 2,433,300 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,391,084. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $213.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $354.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $342.37.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.62%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 46.78%.

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.