Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Davis R M Inc.

Davis R M Inc. raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 144,667 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,634 shares during the quarter. Davis R M Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $51,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $256,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,133,000 after buying an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $5,721,000. Ancora Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 119,261 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,337,000 after purchasing an additional 3,497 shares during the period. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 31.4% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,570 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,010,000 after purchasing an additional 2,768 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $358.66 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $356.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $329.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in 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 plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

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.