Balentine LLC Increases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Balentine LLC grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the quarter. Balentine LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. HMS Capital Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 9.9% during the third quarter. HMS Capital Management LLC now owns 5,076 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,794,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Family Office LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.0% during the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Family Office LLC now owns 4,784 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,691,000 after buying an additional 1,132 shares during the last quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% in the third quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,536 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $543,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 215,909 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $76,318,000 after buying an additional 1,005 shares during the period. Finally, Heritage Investors Management Corp lifted its position in Accenture by 10.7% in the third quarter. Heritage Investors Management Corp now owns 51,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $18,344,000 after buying an additional 5,023 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research 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 company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $345.59 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $352.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.05 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week 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 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 business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 issued a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value 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 $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.