Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 94,866 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,307 shares during the quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $33,533,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.4% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 843,330 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $298,100,000 after buying an additional 50,866 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,471 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,055,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Zevin Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% during the third quarter. Zevin Asset Management LLC now owns 33,532 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $11,853,000 after purchasing an additional 857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 7,800 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,757,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %
ACN traded up $1.06 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $353.85. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,447,114 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,725,069. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $355.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $328.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $221.21 billion, a PE ratio of 30.96, a PEG 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.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share 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 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. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.
Accenture Increases Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.
Check Out Our Latest Report on Accenture
Accenture Company Profile
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Free Report)
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.
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