PDS Planning Inc Has $976,000 Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

PDS Planning Inc lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $976,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 175,375 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $61,992,000 after acquiring an additional 8,732 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 249,086 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $88,047,000 after acquiring an additional 2,576 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 13.4% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,275,036 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $450,700,000 after acquiring an additional 150,358 shares during the period. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the third quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP now owns 63,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,509,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.6% in the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,396,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $1.17 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $344.50. 217,130 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,716,683. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.37 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day moving average is $352.34 and its 200 day moving average is $324.19. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during 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%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.