Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by D.B. Root & Company LLC

D.B. Root & Company LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 25.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 941 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 190 shares during the quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $333,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $89,000. Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.5% during the first quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 21,990 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,622,000 after purchasing an additional 545 shares during the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $261,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 24.0% during the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 133,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $46,428,000 after purchasing an additional 25,908 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motive Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $221,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $356.13 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $222.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $352.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $324.80.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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 previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid 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 yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in 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 programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last ninety days. Company 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.