Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Increased by Portside Wealth Group LLC

Portside Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,769 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 254 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 1.0% of Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,928,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $360.96 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $352.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $324.80. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $225.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.58, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.25.

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, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced 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 reacquire 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 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.