Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Atwater Malick LLC

Atwater Malick LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,416 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 643 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 4.4% of Atwater Malick LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Atwater Malick LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.8% during the third quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,513 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $535,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 3.4% during the third quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 121,338 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $42,891,000 after purchasing an additional 3,985 shares during the last quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $219,000. Asio Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the third quarter. Asio Capital LLC now owns 10,790 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,814,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Affirmative Financial Network lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.8% during the third quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 2,255 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $797,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $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 worth $4,818,002 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $360.74. The stock had a trading volume of 1,436,631 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,751,502. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $226.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.56, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $339.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $320.74.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. 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 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.14%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.