Coerente Capital Management Makes New $203,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Coerente Capital Management bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 575 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Brookstone Capital Management raised its position in shares of Accenture by 45.1% during the 1st quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 11,948 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,141,000 after acquiring an additional 3,716 shares in the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 159.5% in the 1st quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 3,615 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,253,000 after buying an additional 2,222 shares during the last quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,459 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $506,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 8.7% during the first quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 1,208 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $419,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO lifted its holdings in Accenture by 514.3% in the first quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO now owns 172 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America lifted their price objective 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $364.20 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $348.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $322.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.35, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is 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 yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were 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 directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the 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 directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.