1,885 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Acquired by Swmg LLC

Swmg LLC purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,885 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $698,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SYM FINANCIAL Corp bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $216,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Accenture by 16.2% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 103,701 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $36,656,000 after acquiring an additional 14,457 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 314,773 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $111,266,000 after purchasing an additional 34,044 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Finally, NFJ Investment Group LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $1,542,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $1.83 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $358.20. The company had a trading volume of 1,812,892 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,698,000. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm's fifty day moving average is $359.83 and its 200-day moving average is $332.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. 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. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.

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.