Stonebrook Private Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Stonebrook Private Inc. increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,070 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Stonebrook Private Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC grew its position in Accenture by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $358.66 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $224.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $356.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $328.98.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. 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 report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten equities research 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

About Accenture

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.