CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC Buys 129 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the period. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $375,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $256,000. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $420,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 50,574 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,529,000 after purchasing an additional 4,113 shares in the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY increased its position in shares of Accenture by 45.7% during the 1st quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 28,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,852,000 after purchasing an additional 8,910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 137.0% during the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 23,048 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,989,000 after purchasing an additional 13,325 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $358.66 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $356.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $328.98. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.38, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25.

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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were 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 of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.