Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by WoodTrust Financial Corp

WoodTrust Financial Corp grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 832 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $294,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Graypoint LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.4% during the third quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 9,567 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,382,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Architects LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.9% in the third quarter. Wealth Architects LLC now owns 1,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $533,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 25.3% in the 3rd quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 941 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $333,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 34.1% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Point Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 1.2% during the third quarter. Two Point Capital Management Inc. now owns 43,719 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $15,454,000 after buying an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was 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 owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $356.13 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $222.64 billion, a PE ratio of 31.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $352.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $324.80.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

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.