Larson Financial Group LLC Acquires 167 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $394,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 0.4% in 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. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of ACN opened at $363.20 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $330.01. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $227.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, 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 stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid 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 1.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. 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. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.