John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Makes New $218,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 616 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction 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 $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.9 %

ACN opened at $360.41 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $225.31 billion, a PE ratio of 31.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $356.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $328.61.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.