Dash Acquisitions Inc. Purchases 2,267 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Dash Acquisitions Inc. raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 43,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,267 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 3.8% of Dash Acquisitions Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. Dash Acquisitions Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $15,838,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in 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 worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

ACN opened at $345.67 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $352.34 and a 200 day moving average of $324.05. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $216.10 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during 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%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.