RBA Wealth Management LLC Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

RBA Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 26.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,179 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,302 shares during the quarter. RBA Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,184,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Waldron Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.3% in the third quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,035 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,487,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Leo Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Leo Wealth LLC now owns 4,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,591,000 after buying an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1,421.6% during the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 43,944 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,533,000 after buying an additional 41,056 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 222.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sierra Capital LLC now owns 2,228 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $788,000 after buying an additional 1,538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 13,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,947,000 after buying an additional 1,035 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $3.67 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $372.36. 1,011,905 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,726,256. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $346.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $321.91. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $233.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.43, 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 for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. 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 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,548 shares of company stock valued at $3,936,838. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average 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.