Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc.

Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 101,675 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 686 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 2.2% of Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $35,940,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. RFG Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 6.8% during the first quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. &PARTNERS raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 328.2% during the first quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 3,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,226,000 after acquiring an additional 2,645 shares during the period. Unique Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 21.5% during the first quarter. Unique Wealth LLC now owns 5,602 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,942,000 after acquiring an additional 993 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.8% during the first quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 84,839 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,406,000 after acquiring an additional 713 shares during the period. Finally, Cooper Financial Group raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.9% during the first quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $259,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America upped 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. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $376.86 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $345.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $321.77. The company has a market cap of $236.18 billion, a PE ratio of 34.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were 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 owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,693 shares of company stock worth $8,282,341. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.