Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 619 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Asio Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the third quarter. Asio Capital LLC now owns 10,790 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,814,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. First Affirmative Financial Network increased its stake in Accenture by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 2,255 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $797,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,089 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,859,000 after purchasing an additional 969 shares during the period. Fermata Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the third quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC now owns 2,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $734,000 after buying an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JGP Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the third quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,790 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $986,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1 %

ACN stock opened at $360.74 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.07 billion, a PE ratio of 31.56, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $339.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $320.63.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid 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 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 45.14%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,645 shares of company stock worth $4,818,002 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

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.