Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 981 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 981 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $347,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.0% during the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 31.1% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ACN. Mizuho raised their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $344.92 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $352.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $323.82. The stock has a market cap of $215.63 billion, a PE ratio of 30.18, 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits 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 management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Company 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.