Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Lifted by Mawer Investment Management Ltd.

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 843,330 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,866 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.4% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $298,100,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tsfg LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten 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 an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $352.84 on Monday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $355.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $327.46. The stock has a market cap of $220.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.