Savvy Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Savvy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 39.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,755 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 784 shares during the quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $974,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 3.3% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 22,820 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,066,000 after buying an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 2,029 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $717,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 94.3% during the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 11,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,027,000 after purchasing an additional 5,530 shares during the period. Waverton Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $404,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, 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 transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Mizuho boosted their price target 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. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $357.30 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $223.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.26, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $353.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $325.80.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly 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 fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. 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 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

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.