Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock Holdings Raised by L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 111,970 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 707 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 4.8% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $39,579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,870,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tsfg LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $3.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $360.80. The company had a trading volume of 2,129,390 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,722,404. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company’s 50-day moving average is $350.24 and its 200-day moving average is $322.94. The company has a market capitalization of $226.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during 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%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. 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. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.