Intrepid Capital Management Inc. Acquires 210 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Intrepid Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,486 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the quarter. Intrepid Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,232,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Matrix Trust Co increased its stake in Accenture by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 7,343 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,228,000 after acquiring an additional 1,091 shares during the last quarter. M. Kraus & Co increased its stake in Accenture by 81.6% in the 2nd quarter. M. Kraus & Co now owns 19,778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,001,000 after acquiring an additional 8,886 shares during the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 257.6% during the 2nd quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,731 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after purchasing an additional 3,408 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Bank increased its position in shares of Accenture by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter. Exchange Bank now owns 742 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $225,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northside Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Northside Capital Management LLC now owns 2,799 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $849,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % 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. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $10.67 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $350.71. The stock had a trading volume of 671,683 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,693,917. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $358.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $331.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given 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 1.69%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

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.