Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Lifted by Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC

Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 20.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 898 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $317,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,891 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Marietta Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Marietta Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,822 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,360,000 after buying an additional 831 shares during the last quarter. Liberty Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. Liberty Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,710 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,311,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $232,000. Finally, Blossom Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Blossom Wealth Management now owns 894 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $316,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group raised their price target 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 raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $372.01 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $347.76 and its 200-day moving average is $322.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $233.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company 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 revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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 paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other 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 directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other 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 directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,548 shares of company stock valued at $7,322,278 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.