JFS Wealth Advisors LLC Has $1.12 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 547.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,158 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,670 shares during the quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,116,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $35,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 108.0% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 57.1% during the first quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 110 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $344.92 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $352.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $323.82. The company has a market cap of $215.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.18, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its 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. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Mizuho increased their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,107 shares of company stock worth $12,275,914 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.