Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Raised by Wills Financial Group Inc.

Wills Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,882 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 231 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 1.3% of Wills Financial Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Wills Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,140,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 607.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price 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. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $358.13 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $359.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $332.26. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.33, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.