Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 991 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $349,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.2 %

Accenture stock traded down $7.90 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $349.83. The company had a trading volume of 1,272,400 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,455,690. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $218.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $343.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. 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. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted 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. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

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.