Stifel Financial Corp Has $668.97 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,892,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,491 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 0.7% of Stifel Financial Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Stifel Financial Corp owned about 0.30% of Accenture worth $668,974,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % 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 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 2.1 %

ACN stock opened at $359.90 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $359.83 and a 200-day moving average of $332.08. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $225.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

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

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.