Platform Technology Partners Increases Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Platform Technology Partners increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,029 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 35 shares during the quarter. Platform Technology Partners’ holdings in Accenture were worth $717,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 94.3% during the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 11,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,027,000 after purchasing an additional 5,530 shares during the period. Waverton Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $745,000. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.9% in the third quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 9,688 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,425,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $357.30 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $353.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $325.80. The stock has a market cap of $223.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This 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 at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.