Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Purchases 50,866 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 843,330 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 50,866 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up 1.4% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. owned 0.13% of Accenture worth $298,100,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 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. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.78 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $352.79. 1,759,897 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,726,316. The company has a market cap of $220.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $355.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $327.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes 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 management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 price target 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 assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.23.

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.