SouthState Corp Buys 3,279 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

SouthState Corp increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 36,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,279 shares during the period. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 108.0% during the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $352.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $220.55 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $355.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $327.83. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share buyback 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.