Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Sather Financial Group Inc

Sather Financial Group Inc lifted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 133,818 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 3,988 shares during the period. Accenture makes up 3.0% of Sather Financial Group Inc's portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Sather Financial Group Inc's holdings in Accenture were worth $47,302,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its position in Accenture by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,796 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,342,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Accredited Investors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the third quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 5,569 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,969,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 50.4% in the third quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $369,000 after buying an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 22.4% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 674,798 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $238,527,000 after buying an additional 123,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. now owns 23,983 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $8,478,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $8.50 on Friday, hitting $353.57. The stock had a trading volume of 3,624,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,555,959. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $355.55 and a 200-day moving average of $327.26. The company has a market capitalization of $221.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Susquehanna upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % 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. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. 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 insiders.

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.