Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s 6th Largest Position

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 627,419 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,980 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 4.7% of Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $221,780,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $256,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.4% in the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,570 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,010,000 after buying an additional 2,768 shares during the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $1,784,000. Finally, Vista Investment Partners LLC raised its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the first quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 13,130 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,551,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’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 value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE ACN traded up $1.27 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $362.56. The company had a trading volume of 60,542 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,706,527. The company’s fifty day moving average is $356.57 and its 200-day moving average is $329.61. The company has a market cap of $226.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in 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 a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.