Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 5,278 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 5,278 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,866,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during 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 last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued 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 $372.09.

Accenture Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $4.57 on Friday, reaching $362.70. The company had a trading volume of 2,332,307 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,369,316. The business's 50-day moving average is $360.14 and its 200 day moving average is $333.04. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued 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 last year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

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.