Natixis Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 22.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 674,798 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 123,583 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.11% of Accenture worth $238,527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $302,165,000 after buying an additional 712,400 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 196.5% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $342,483,000 after buying an additional 654,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $180,401,000 after acquiring an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 company's 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % 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 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Down 2.3 %

NYSE ACN traded down $8.50 on Friday, reaching $353.57. The company had a trading volume of 3,624,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,730,625. The stock has a market cap of $221.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock's 50 day moving average is $355.55 and its 200-day moving average is $327.08.

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

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 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.