Financial Council LLC Takes Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Financial Council LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after purchasing 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 purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. increased its stake 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 valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.4% in the third quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,870,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture 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 transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho lifted their price objective 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. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $358.66 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $356.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $328.98. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. The company’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 firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

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.