Kestra Investment Management LLC Takes $2.57 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 7,257 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,565,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Mizuho increased 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.37 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $358.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $331.01. The stock has a market cap of $226.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.70, a PEG ratio of 3.17 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes 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 management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 1.63%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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.