Vest Financial LLC Has $29.54 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vest Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 83,571 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,948 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $29,541,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Tsfg LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 267.9% during the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $1.71 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $376.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,893,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,739,403. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $236.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $345.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $321.67.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 23,693 shares of company stock worth $8,282,341. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced 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. Mizuho raised 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup lifted 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

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.