Principal Street Partners LLC Has $1.42 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Principal Street Partners LLC lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 98.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,006 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,987 shares during the quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,416,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its position 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 worth $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $362.56 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.66 billion, a PE ratio of 31.61, a PEG ratio of 3.14 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $356.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $329.61.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

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

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.