State Street Corp Increases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 471,792 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned approximately 4.38% of Accenture worth $9,685,648,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd 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. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $1.90 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $358.13. The stock had a trading volume of 1,819,083 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,698,607. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $359.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $332.08. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.38, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm's 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 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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 represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents 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 through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture 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.