HCR Wealth Advisors Buys 65 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

HCR Wealth Advisors increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 948 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the quarter. HCR Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $335,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after buying an additional 712,400 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Accenture by 196.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $342,483,000 after buying an additional 654,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after buying an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented 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 research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1 %

Accenture stock opened at $360.74 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $226.07 billion, a PE ratio of 31.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $339.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $320.63. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 45.14%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. 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. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,645 shares of company stock valued at $4,818,002. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.