EP Wealth Advisors LLC Has $11.30 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 28.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,967 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 7,151 shares during the quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $11,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth about $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % 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. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $4.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $362.70. The company had a trading volume of 2,332,307 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,369,316. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $226.75 billion, a PE ratio of 31.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $360.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $333.04.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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 paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird restated a "neutral" rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $372.09.

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.