Sterling Financial Group Inc. Makes New $233,000 Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sterling Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 659 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Annex Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 12.3% in the first quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 842 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 10.2% in the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 5.2% in the first quarter. Elevated Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,286 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $792,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 45.1% during the first quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 11,948 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,141,000 after acquiring an additional 3,716 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aletheian Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $220,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $0.77 on Wednesday, reaching $371.02. 76,892 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,716,885. The firm has a market cap of $232.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average of $347.76 and a 200-day moving average of $322.19. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. 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. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This 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 19,548 shares of company stock worth $7,322,278 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.