Seascape Capital Management Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Seascape Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,009 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the quarter. Seascape Capital Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $357,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Windward Capital Management Co. CA raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Windward Capital Management Co. CA now owns 129,536 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $45,788,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Provident Trust Co. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Provident Trust Co. now owns 1,569,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $554,703,000 after acquiring an additional 4,479 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $6,108,000. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 45,609 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $16,122,000 after acquiring an additional 3,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stiles Financial Services Inc raised its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc now owns 8,559 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,026,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $355.51 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $353.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.32. The company has a market cap of $222.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 1.67%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. 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 available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. 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 link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

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.