Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 43,265 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Accenture were worth $15,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tsfg LLC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the 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 transaction, 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 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $357.04 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $223.21 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $356.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $328.39. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business 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 quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors 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.