Arlington Partners LLC Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Arlington Partners LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,305 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,733 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.7% of Arlington Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Arlington Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,350,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Tsfg LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 267.9% during the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Down 0.5 %

Accenture stock traded down $1.83 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $375.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 366,585 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,727,714. The company has a market cap of $235.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $345.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $321.59. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders 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 of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. 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 this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,548 shares of company stock valued at $5,585,938. 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.