Spire Wealth Management Has $4.22 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Spire Wealth Management increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,588 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 426 shares during the quarter. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,217,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 35,819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,569,000 after buying an additional 4,402 shares during the period. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. now owns 1,014 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $356,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the period. NTV Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 133.2% during the 4th quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 3,241 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,137,000 after buying an additional 1,851 shares during the period. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 224.4% during the 4th quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,579 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,660,000 after buying an additional 5,243 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in shares of Accenture by 28.7% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 421,961 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $146,118,000 after buying an additional 94,149 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Redburn Atlantic boosted their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

ACN stock traded up $2.39 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $306.10. 2,361,326 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,501,520. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $342.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $342.23. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $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 firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

About Accenture

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.