Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. Buys 69 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 845 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the period. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $299,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 214.8% in the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth $26,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Tsfg LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 267.9% during the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:ACN traded up $4.06 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $368.66. 2,954,616 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,750,996. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $340.99 and its 200-day moving average is $320.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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 company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Citigroup increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen raised shares of 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 report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This represents a 0.00 % 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. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.