Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC

Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,184 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,222,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,392 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $846,000 after buying an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 1,903 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $673,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.4% during the third quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 2,760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $976,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 5.2% in the third quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 175,375 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $61,992,000 after purchasing an additional 8,732 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in Accenture by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 249,086 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $88,047,000 after buying an additional 2,576 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value 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. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,107 shares of company stock valued at $12,275,914 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5 %

ACN opened at $343.90 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $352.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $324.38. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $214.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.09, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business 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 quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on ACN shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

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.