Vontobel Holding Ltd. Acquires 64,495 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 920,654 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 64,495 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.1% of Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $325,433,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 10.2% during the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Tsfg LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.5% in the second quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 747 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $227,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Encompass More Asset Management grew its position in Accenture by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 700 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $212,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of ACN traded up $1.84 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $370.50. 518,344 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,739,834. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $341.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $320.77. The firm has a market cap of $232.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.21%.

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.