Slow Capital Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Slow Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,205,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 10.2% during the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Tsfg LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.5% during the second quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 747 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Encompass More Asset Management raised its position in shares of Accenture by 4.8% in the second quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 700 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $212,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $376.86 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $345.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $321.77. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $236.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research 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 research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $8,282,341 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by 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.