Arvest Investments Inc. Acquires 57 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Arvest Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,285 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the quarter. Arvest Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,868,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners grew its holdings 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 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 worth $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 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 acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

ACN stock traded down $5.18 on Friday, hitting $355.53. The company had a trading volume of 2,289,531 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,312,858. The stock has a market cap of $222.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $353.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $325.38. 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 data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

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.