Plato Investment Management Ltd Buys Shares of 18,313 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 18,313 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,467,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Cable Hill Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 65.1% during the third quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC now owns 1,549 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $548,000 after purchasing an additional 611 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Accenture by 700.0% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 160 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after acquiring an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.5% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 75,776 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $26,785,000 after acquiring an additional 392 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 6,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,276,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $370.34 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $231.52 billion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $354.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $326.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

About Accenture

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.