Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Has $76.32 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 215,909 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,005 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 1.5% of Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $76,318,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in 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. grew its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in 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. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.4% in 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. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $343.43. The stock had a trading volume of 154,118 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,712,889. The firm has a market cap of $214.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $352.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $324.38. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend 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.