Capital Advisors Inc. OK Has $97.41 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Capital Advisors Inc. OK increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 275,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 39,255 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 2.0% of Capital Advisors Inc. OK’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Capital Advisors Inc. OK’s holdings in Accenture were worth $97,409,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $35,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chilton Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 57.1% in the first quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 110 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2 %

ACN stock opened at $345.67 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $352.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $324.05. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $216.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.24, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’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 directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,107 shares of company stock valued at $12,275,914. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.