Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Lifted by Precedent Wealth Partners LLC

Precedent Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,380 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,548,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. RFG Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 6.8% during the first quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. &PARTNERS grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 328.2% in the 1st quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 3,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,226,000 after acquiring an additional 2,645 shares during the last quarter. Unique Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 21.5% during the first quarter. Unique Wealth LLC now owns 5,602 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,942,000 after purchasing an additional 993 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 84,839 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,406,000 after purchasing an additional 713 shares during the period. Finally, Cooper Financial Group increased its stake in Accenture by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $376.86 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $236.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $345.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $321.77. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month 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 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 an increase 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 1.57%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents 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 the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $8,282,341 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

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.