Jacobsen Capital Management Buys 274 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Jacobsen Capital Management increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 41.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 935 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the period. Jacobsen Capital Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $331,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 8.6% in the 1st quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,685 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $584,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV grew its stake in Accenture by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 6,381 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,212,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 12.6% in the 1st quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,830 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,714,000 after buying an additional 876 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in Accenture by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 18,111 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,277,000 after buying an additional 1,630 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,107 shares of company stock valued at $12,275,914. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Accenture stock opened at $363.15 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $227.03 billion, a PE ratio of 31.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $351.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $323.52. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. 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.