Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC Boosts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,184 shares during the quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $343.90 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $352.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $324.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $214.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 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 issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.