Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Has $30.51 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 24.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 86,298 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 17,013 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $30,505,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted 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 period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $358.13 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.33, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $359.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $332.26. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.09.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.