EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 59 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,552 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $357.04 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $223.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.24, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $356.03 and its 200 day moving average is $328.39. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock 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 generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is 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.