Motiv8 Investments LLC Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Motiv8 Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 16.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $859,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $3.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $360.80. The stock had a trading volume of 2,129,390 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,722,404. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $350.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $322.94. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

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 dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

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

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.