1,885 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Purchased by Swmg LLC

Swmg LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,885 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $698,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Accenture by 378.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Accenture by 251.3% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 37,788.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Guggenheim increased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $359.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $225.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $359.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $332.08. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued 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 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.