Fiera Capital Corp Has $16.12 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fiera Capital Corp boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,609 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,135 shares during the quarter. Fiera Capital Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,122,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners raised its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,870,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America increased their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of ACN opened at $355.51 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $222.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $353.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $325.32. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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.