Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,758 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise's holdings in Accenture were worth $8,751,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in Accenture by 196.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $342,483,000 after purchasing an additional 654,807 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $180,401,000 after buying an additional 509,011 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target 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 upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded up $1.06 on Tuesday, reaching $353.85. 2,447,114 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,725,069. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $355.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $327.83. The stock has a market cap of $221.21 billion, a PE ratio of 30.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business 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 earned $2.71 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes 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 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.