Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Studio Investment Management LLC

Studio Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Studio Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $525,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in 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 buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 108.0% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE ACN opened at $360.41 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $356.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $328.61. The company has a market capitalization of $225.31 billion, a PE ratio of 31.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

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.