Mirabella Financial Services LLP Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Mirabella Financial Services LLP grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 344.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,890 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 12,317 shares during the period. Mirabella Financial Services LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 12.3% in the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 11,538 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,078,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267 shares in the last quarter. Davis R M Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.3% in the third quarter. Davis R M Inc. now owns 144,667 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,137,000 after acquiring an additional 8,634 shares in the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the third quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 262,276 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $92,709,000 after acquiring an additional 3,735 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 78,465 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,736,000 after purchasing an additional 9,911 shares during the period. Finally, Marco Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 10,120 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,577,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $358.66 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $356.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $329.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.38, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Mizuho increased 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. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.