BIP Wealth LLC Takes $1.63 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

BIP Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 4,607 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,628,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BNP Paribas cut 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, Piper Sandler Companies restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % 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, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $0.64 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $353.43. The stock had a trading volume of 1,107,756 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,719,091. The stock has a market cap of $220.95 billion, a PE ratio of 30.82, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $355.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $327.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate 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. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.