Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases New Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 571 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 251.3% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,165,000 after buying an additional 712,400 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 196.5% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $342,483,000 after acquiring an additional 654,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $345.59 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.05 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business’s 50 day moving average is $352.58 and its 200-day moving average is $324.58.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This 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 is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.