Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Purchases 719 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,820 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 719 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,066,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Platform Technology Partners raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 2,029 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $717,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 94.3% during the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 11,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,027,000 after buying an additional 5,530 shares in the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $745,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were 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 owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE ACN opened at $357.30 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $353.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $325.80. The company has a market capitalization of $223.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.25.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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 issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Company 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.