Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Leo Wealth LLC

Leo Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the quarter. Leo Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,591,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Tsfg LLC raised its position in Accenture by 267.9% in the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,548 shares of company stock valued at $3,936,838 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded down $4.11 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $371.92. 886,776 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,725,643. The company has a market cap of $233.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.43, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $346.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $321.91. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 last year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback 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 board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.21%.

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.