Meridian Wealth Management LLC Acquires 309 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 13,405 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 309 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,738,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after acquiring an additional 712,400 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $180,401,000 after acquiring an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $125,126,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $361.05 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $225.71 billion, a PE ratio of 31.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $356.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $328.61.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program 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 purchase 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 stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target 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 raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Barclays increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim increased their target price 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, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Company 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.