Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 293,475 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,077 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 1.5% of Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $103,737,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. NBC Securities Inc. increased its stake 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 during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Tsfg LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in 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 during the period. Finally, Encompass More Asset Management lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.8% in the second quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 700 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $212,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s 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 $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,693 shares of company stock worth $8,282,341. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on ACN shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $376.86 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $345.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $321.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Accenture Company 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.