Natixis Advisors LLC Has $238.53 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 674,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 123,583 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $238,527,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 0.4% during the third quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,870,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $353.57 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $221.04 billion, a PE ratio of 30.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $355.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $327.08.

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 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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.