Quantinno Capital Management LP Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 16.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 103,701 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 14,457 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 0.5% of Quantinno Capital Management LP's holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Quantinno Capital Management LP's holdings in Accenture were worth $36,656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CX Institutional grew its holdings in Accenture by 8.3% in the second quarter. CX Institutional now owns 3,536 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,073,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the period. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Accenture by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,718 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,555,000 after buying an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. BDF Gestion acquired a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,697,000. CCM Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% in the second quarter. CCM Investment Advisers LLC now owns 41,362 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $12,550,000 after acquiring an additional 611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.1% during the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 5,507 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,671,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $1.93 during trading on Thursday, reaching $358.10. The company's stock had a trading volume of 992,826 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,694,921. The firm has a market cap of $223.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $359.83 and a 200-day moving average of $332.08. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the 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 directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Company 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.