Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP

Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 63,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $22,509,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in Accenture by 18.7% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares during the period. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $19,007,000. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 41.6% during the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 12,216 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,318,000 after acquiring an additional 3,586 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $87,566,000 after acquiring an additional 12,993 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.8% during the 1st quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,778,000 after purchasing an additional 14,283 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. 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 valued at $12,275,914 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. 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 report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $345.67 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $352.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $324.19. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback 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 usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture Company 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.