Crew Capital Management Ltd. Increases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Crew Capital Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,502 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 501 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 1.0% of Crew Capital Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Crew Capital Management Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,238,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after acquiring an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Accenture by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Accenture by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after buying an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,786,256,000 after acquiring an additional 80,514 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Citigroup increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. 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. Bank of America raised their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. 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 available through this link. Also, 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 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 represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,548 shares of company stock valued at $5,585,938 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $2.07 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $374.79. 446,619 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,728,108. The company has a market cap of $234.88 billion, a PE ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $345.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $321.59.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.