West Branch Capital LLC Acquires 551 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

West Branch Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 33.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,210 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 551 shares during the quarter. West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $781,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd 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. West Paces Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Tsfg LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 747 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $227,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $8,282,341. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $1.71 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $376.86. The stock had a trading volume of 1,893,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,739,403. The firm has a market cap of $236.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50-day moving average of $345.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $321.67. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

About Accenture

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.