932 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Purchased by Bellecapital International Ltd.

Bellecapital International Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $329,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in Accenture by 251.3% during the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 712,400 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in Accenture by 196.5% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $342,483,000 after acquiring an additional 654,807 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $2.33 during trading on Monday, reaching $374.53. The stock had a trading volume of 426,741 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,727,714. The stock has a market cap of $234.72 billion, a PE 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. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $345.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $321.59.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. On average, 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 initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy 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 firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.21%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % 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, 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,548 shares of company stock worth $5,585,938 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

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.