Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Invests $1.87 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 5,278 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,866,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. grew its position 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 worth $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners grew its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd 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. grew its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $362.70 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $360.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $332.86. 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 cap of $226.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. 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%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were 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 directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % 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 three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.09.

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.