Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by V Square Quantitative Management LLC

V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,865 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 854 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 0.7% of V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,901,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its stake in Accenture by 3.3% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 108,512 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $38,357,000 after buying an additional 3,452 shares during the last quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.2% during the third quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC now owns 44,208 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,627,000 after buying an additional 958 shares during the last quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 13,228 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,676,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Drake & Associates LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 12.0% during the third quarter. Drake & Associates LLC now owns 925 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $327,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.8% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 77,373 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,350,000 after buying an additional 1,352 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.77 on Friday, hitting $374.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 287,529 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,731,454. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $234.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $344.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $321.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

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.