Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Has $221.78 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 627,419 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,980 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 4.7% of Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. owned about 0.10% of Accenture worth $221,780,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Street Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 98.4% in the third quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC now owns 4,006 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,416,000 after purchasing an additional 1,987 shares during the last quarter. Avestar Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 30.7% during the 3rd quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,178,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 44,078 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,591,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 108,018 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $38,182,000 after buying an additional 2,742 shares during the period. Finally, Qsemble Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $1,597,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ACN traded up $1.27 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $362.56. 60,542 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,706,527. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $226.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.61, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $356.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $329.61.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors 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.