Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,113 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 0.9% of Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,937,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Connable Office Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.5% in the third quarter. Connable Office Inc. now owns 7,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,525,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.1% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 111,561 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $39,411,000 after purchasing an additional 8,338 shares in the last quarter. FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE Co increased its stake in Accenture by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter. FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE Co now owns 3,349 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,184,000 after buying an additional 880 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 37,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,149,000 after purchasing an additional 896 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schulhoff & Co. Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Schulhoff & Co. Inc. now owns 12,980 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,588,000 after acquiring an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. 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 report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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 $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. 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 quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $360.56 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $225.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $354.85 and a 200-day moving average of $326.48.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture 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.