Seascape Capital Management Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Seascape Capital Management raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,009 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Seascape Capital Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. 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 a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $355.51 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $353.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $325.32. The company has a market capitalization of $222.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 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 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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.