Meridian Financial Partners LLC Purchases New Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Meridian Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 599 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $35,000. Tsfg LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 267.9% during the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the 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 owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 have sold 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $8,282,341. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, 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. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $345.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $321.77. The company has a market cap 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 plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company 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 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.