McBroom & Associates LLC Has $6.70 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

McBroom & Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,944 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 868 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 4.1% of McBroom & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. McBroom & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,696,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in Accenture by 18.7% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its holdings in Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 13.3% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after buying an additional 21,516 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $19,007,000. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 27.8% during the first quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,778,000 after buying an additional 14,283 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $8,282,341. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $376.86 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $345.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $321.67. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in 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 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.