Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Increases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,153 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $408,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 12.7% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,891 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $656,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 3.9% during the first quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 1,200 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $407,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. LVW Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.4% during the first quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 1,137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $394,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in Accenture by 17.3% during the first quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 10,150 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,518,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $360.80 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $350.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $322.94. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $226.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.04, a PEG ratio of 3.47 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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Susquehanna upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

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.