Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by First Affirmative Financial Network

First Affirmative Financial Network lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,255 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network’s holdings in Accenture were worth $797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Oarsman Capital Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 913.1% during the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 28,215 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,901,000 after purchasing an additional 25,430 shares in the last quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,935 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $679,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $86,601,000. Peloton Wealth Strategists lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 4,903 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,721,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. 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 90 days, insiders sold 14,645 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,002. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $360.71 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $226.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.56, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $339.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $320.74. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.14%.

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.