Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by M&G Plc

M&G Plc raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 74,438 shares during the quarter. M&G Plc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $103,361,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during 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 buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 108.0% during the first 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 last quarter. Finally, Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 57.1% during the first quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 110 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was 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 owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim raised 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. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Up 3.1 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $356.13 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $352.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $324.80.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture 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.