Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Purchases 1,267 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,538 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,267 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,078,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $361.29 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $225.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $356.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $329.61.

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

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was 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 accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. The trade was a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

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.