Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Acquires 392 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,776 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 392 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $26,785,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 0.4% during the third quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,870,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of ACN traded up $2.14 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $362.75. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 286,430 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,708,796. The firm has a market cap of $226.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50 day moving average of $354.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $326.17. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.