Arvest Investments Inc. Buys 57 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Arvest Investments Inc. raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,285 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Arvest Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,868,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $221,000. Atomi Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 30.6% during the first quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,262 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $438,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 57.1% in the 1st quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 110 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Choate Investment Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 14,291 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,953,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NorthRock Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 39.3% in the 1st quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 5,276 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,829,000 after acquiring an additional 1,489 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $5.18 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $355.53. The company had a trading volume of 2,289,531 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,312,858. The stock has a market cap of $222.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $353.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $325.38.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped 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. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.