CreativeOne Wealth LLC Acquires 442 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

CreativeOne Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,571 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 442 shares during the quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Accenture by 251.3% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 37,788.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $125,126,000. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its position in Accenture by 16.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $362.16 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.69, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $358.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $330.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % 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 worth $13,372,661 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. 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. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

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.