W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. Has $572,000 Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 24.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,617 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 321 shares during the quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $572,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in Accenture by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after buying an additional 80,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after buying an additional 148,738 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $343.90 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $352.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.38. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,107 shares of company stock valued at $12,275,914 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average 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.