Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Purchases 56,937 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.77% of Accenture worth $1,705,100,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vident Advisory LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 11,563 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,009,000 after acquiring an additional 874 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.2% during the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 4,558 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,580,000 after acquiring an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 115.2% in the first quarter. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. now owns 47,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $16,442,000 after purchasing an additional 25,390 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Accenture by 196.5% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $342,483,000 after buying an additional 654,807 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Inc. CA bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,063,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $358.56 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $224.16 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average of $356.03 and a 200 day moving average of $328.39. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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 paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value 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. The trade was 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 insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

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.