Segment Wealth Management LLC Buys 157 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Segment Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 42,984 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $15,194,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. now owns 9,436 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,319,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. RBA Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter. RBA Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,179 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,184,000 after acquiring an additional 1,302 shares in the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,035 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,487,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. Leo Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.4% in the third quarter. Leo Wealth LLC now owns 4,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,591,000 after buying an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eastern Bank grew its holdings in Accenture by 1,421.6% during the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 43,944 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,533,000 after acquiring an additional 41,056 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 19,548 shares of company stock valued at $7,322,278. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 1.2 %

Accenture stock opened at $371.69 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $347.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $322.19. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $232.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management 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.