Austin Private Wealth LLC Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Austin Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,536 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Austin Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $543,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 215,909 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $76,318,000 after purchasing an additional 1,005 shares in the last quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp boosted its holdings in Accenture by 10.7% during the third quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp now owns 51,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $18,344,000 after buying an additional 5,023 shares in the last quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 24.8% in the third quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. now owns 1,617 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $572,000 after buying an additional 321 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 14,772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,222,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184 shares during the period. Finally, FSM Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,392 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $846,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ACN. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ACN traded up $1.44 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $345.34. The company had a trading volume of 297,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,713,227. The stock has a market cap of $215.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $352.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $324.38. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm 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 is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s 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.