Natixis Advisors LLC Has $238.53 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 22.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 674,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 123,583 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned about 0.11% of Accenture worth $238,527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position 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 buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC boosted its stake in 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 during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho increased their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $353.57 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $221.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s fifty day moving average is $355.55 and its 200-day moving average is $327.08. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of 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 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.