Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Buys 7,207 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 119,242 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,207 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $41,948,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners grew its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $1.19 on Thursday, hitting $350.92. The stock had a trading volume of 2,024,879 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,553,718. The firm has a market cap of $219.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.44, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $357.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $344.97.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.04.

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.