Marco Investment Management LLC Purchases 125 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Marco Investment Management LLC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,120 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Marco Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,577,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $358.66 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $224.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day moving average is $356.42 and its 200-day moving average is $329.11.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm 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. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on ACN. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

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.