Prospera Financial Services Inc Has $11.43 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Prospera Financial Services Inc grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,330 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 3,273 shares during the quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc's holdings in Accenture were worth $11,432,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,040,000. M&G PLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 34.1% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 70.6% during the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in Accenture by 18.7% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $0.07 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $352.86. The company had a trading volume of 1,061,061 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,718,882. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $355.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $327.83. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $220.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. 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 1.68%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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 owns 20,324 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over 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.