626 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Purchased by New England Professional Planning Group Inc.

New England Professional Planning Group Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 626 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 18.7% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after acquiring an additional 27,168 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its position in Accenture by 11.9% during the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after buying an additional 3,900 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after buying an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $19,007,000. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 27.8% during the 1st quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,778,000 after acquiring an additional 14,283 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,645 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,002 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded up $0.34 on Friday, reaching $361.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 304,516 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,746,479. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The business’s 50 day moving average is $339.22 and its 200 day moving average is $320.55. The stock has a market cap of $226.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in 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 programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.14%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho increased their price target 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 Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley lowered Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

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.