Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Baldwin Investment Management LLC

Baldwin Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 298 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 0.6% of Baldwin Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Baldwin Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,578,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners grew its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,870,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $363.20 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $227.06 billion, a PE ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $357.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $330.01.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were 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 directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.