MML Investors Services LLC Has $46.96 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

MML Investors Services LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 132,841 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 5,828 shares during the quarter. MML Investors Services LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $46,957,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $9,685,648,000 after purchasing an additional 471,792 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after buying an additional 131,544 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.4% during the 2nd 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 buying an additional 80,514 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after buying an additional 56,937 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was 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 at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 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

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $372.09.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $3.05 on Monday, hitting $359.65. 2,185,014 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,694,903. The company's 50 day moving average price is $360.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $333.42. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.47, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24.

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 for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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.