Plato Investment Management Ltd Acquires Shares of 18,313 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 18,313 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $6,467,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Cable Hill Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 65.1% in the third quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC now owns 1,549 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $548,000 after acquiring an additional 611 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Accenture by 700.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 160 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.5% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 75,776 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $26,785,000 after buying an additional 392 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.3% during the third quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 6,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,276,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $8.12 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $362.10. 3,503,029 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,726,620. The company has a market capitalization of $226.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $354.85 and a 200 day moving average of $326.48. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture's revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, 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 initiated a share buyback 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective 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. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target 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.