Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Banque Cantonale Vaudoise

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 24,758 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,751,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 251.3% in 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 during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 196.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $342,483,000 after purchasing an additional 654,807 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 37,788.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $352.79 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $220.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $355.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $327.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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

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.