Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,117 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $395,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $256,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,133,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at $5,721,000. Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 119,261 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,337,000 after acquiring an additional 3,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 31.4% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,570 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,010,000 after buying an additional 2,768 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’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 transaction 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 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $358.66 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $356.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $329.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.38, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.