Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Gateway Investment Advisers LLC

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 169.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 112,035 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 70,481 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $39,602,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim increased 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. 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 report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 14,645 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,002. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $360.74. The stock had a trading volume of 1,436,631 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,751,502. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $339.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $320.74. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This is a positive change 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 45.14%.

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

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.