Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is GSA Capital Partners LLP's 8th Largest Position

GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 94.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,393 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 5,530 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 0.3% of GSA Capital Partners LLP's portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. GSA Capital Partners LLP's holdings in Accenture were worth $4,027,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,311,102,000 after acquiring an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after acquiring an additional 173,107 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 4.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,316,086,000 after purchasing an additional 148,738 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded up $3.34 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $360.64. 3,233,552 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,719,820. The firm has a market cap of $225.46 billion, a PE ratio of 31.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.25. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $353.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $325.80. 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, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.