SGL Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 2,608 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

SGL Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 2,608 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $944,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,871,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $372.09.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction 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 represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business'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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

ACN traded down $3.79 on Monday, hitting $358.91. 1,329,181 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,691,057. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $360.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $333.04. The stock has a market cap of $224.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

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

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.