Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Bridges Investment Management Inc.

Bridges Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 63,722 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 32 shares during the quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $22,524,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Klingman & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 87.7% in the 3rd quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 2,310 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,079 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 23.6% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 83,440 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,494,000 after buying an additional 15,912 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,030 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,838,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.9% in the third quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 38,336 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,209,000 after buying an additional 1,435 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Washington Trust Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 595 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $210,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $355.51 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $353.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $325.32. The company has a market capitalization of $222.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim raised their price objective 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

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.